A cochlear implants is a small device made up of a microphone, a speech processor, a transmitter and a receiver. It is implanted and connected to the inner ear to help people with profound hearing loss regain the ability to hear. The procedure has proven successful, but surgical risks and cost-utility ratios have made the surgery controversial in the older population.

In order to determine what, if any, role age plays in postoperative success, researchers from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore compared word recognition testing in patients between the ages of 14 and 91 with profound hearing loss.

They discovered the difference in postoperative word score between those older than age 65 and those younger than 65 were not clinically significant. Instead, they learned the stronger influencing factor is the length of time between the loss of hearing and the implantation of the device.

These findings are significant because as many as 400,000 of the 35 million Americans older than age 65 suffer from severe profound hearing loss. Severe hearing loss in the older population is associated with psychological disturbances, social and emotional handicaps, and reductions in mental and physical functioning.

Based on their findings, researchers say, "There is little reason to suggest that elderly patients with profound hearing loss are unsuitable candidates for cochlear implantation."

By Ivanhoe
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