- Design
- Retrospective single-centre review, 2012 to 2023
- Population
- 41 adult cochlear implant recipients with 5 or more years of unaided deafness
- Primary outcome
- CNC word recognition at 3 and 12 months
- Effect
- Lower scores at 3 months with 20 or more years of deafness; no significant differences at 12 months
A single-centre retrospective review included 41 adult cochlear implant recipients with at least five years of documented unaided deafness, grouped as 5 to 9, 10 to 19 and 20 or more years. The primary outcome was CNC word recognition at 3 and 12 months.
At three months, those with 20 or more years of deafness scored lower than shorter-duration groups. At twelve months the groups did not differ significantly. People with no measurable preoperative hearing thresholds were more likely to be non-users of the device or to fail to reach open-set speech perception.
The authors suggest long deafness should not exclude candidacy, and that absent preoperative thresholds may mark a higher-risk subgroup for counselling. With 41 patients, the subgroup findings are fragile.
- Deafness of 20 or more years went with slower early speech gains.
- Differences were gone by 12 months.
- No measurable preoperative thresholds went with non-use or no open-set speech.
- Only 41 patients from one high-volume centre.
- Counsel long-deafened candidates on slower early progress rather than ruling them out.
Why it matters
Duration of deafness is a common reason implant candidacy is questioned.
Don't overread it
A small retrospective single-centre review cannot define who should or should not be implanted.
The statistics, in plain English
With 41 patients split across three groups, there were only a handful of people in each, so a non-significant difference at 12 months could still hide a real difference.
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