Objective: To propose a numerical radiological scoring system of the pre-operative high-resolution computed tomography scan aiming to predict the surgical difficulty during cochlear implantation.
Methods: This was a retrospective study of 272 pediatric patients who underwent cochlear implantation in 3 tertiary referral centers from April 2017 to August 2019. The correlation was attempted between our proposed scoring system (consisting of 8 radiological features) and the intraoperative surgical difficulty both objectively and subjectively.
Results: our proposed scoring system showed a statistically significant correlation with surgical difficulty and also the duration of surgery. Scoring 5 or more predicted the surgical difficulty with a sensitivity of 80.85% and a specificity of 92.13%. The absence of air cells around the facial recess was the most independent predictor of difficulty (P value = .002).
Conclusion: This proposed radiological scoring system is a simple reliable method to predict the difficulty which we may encounter during CI surgery. Scoring of 5 or more would predict intraoperative difficulty as opposed to less scoring which would predict a straightforward surgery.