Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the auditory performance development of cochlear implanted patients. The effects of age at implantation, gender, implanted ear and model of the cochlear implant on the patients' auditory performance were investigated.
Patients and methods: Twenty-eight patients (12 boys, 16 girls) with congenital prelingual hearing loss who underwent cochlear implant surgery at our clinic and a follow-up of at least 18 months were selected for the study. Listening Progress Profile (LiP), Monosyllable-Trochee-Polysyllable (MTP) and Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) tests were performed to analyze the auditory performances of the patients. To determine the effect of the age at implantation on the auditory performance, patients were assigned into two groups: group 1 (implantation age = or <60 months, mean 44.8 months) and group 2 (implantation age = or <60 months, mean 100.6 months).
Results: Group 2 had higher preoperative test scores than group 1 but after cochlear implant use, the auditory performance levels of the patients in group 1 improved faster and equalized to those of the patients in group 2 after 12-18 months. Our data showed that variables such as sex, implanted ear or model of the cochlear implant did not have any statistically significant effect on the auditory performance of the patients after cochlear implantation.
Conclusion: We found a negative correlation between the implantation age and the auditory performance improvement in our study. We observed that children implanted at young age had a quicker language development and have had more success in reading, writing and other educational skills in the future.