Institutional Analysis of the Surgical Outcomes of Cochlear Implantation in Deprived Population

Abstract

Background: Cochlear implantation (CI) surgeries are safe and performed successfully in many patients; however, postoperative complications still occur, which may be influenced by socioeconomic and demographic variables. Methodology: This is a retrospective observational study of 146 adults and children with hearing loss, who had CI surgery between 2017 and 2022. This study aims to assess the frequency and nature of surgical complications in patients from a low socioeconomic background who underwent CI surgery in different geographic areas. For the analysis of data, IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21.0 (Released 2012; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States) was used.

Result: A total of 146 candidates were evaluated, out of which 82 were male (56.16%) and 64 (43.84%) were female. The age of patients at the time of surgery ranged from 1-50 years. All of the patients underwent unilateral CI. Eighteen implanted patients developed minor complications with an incidence rate of 12.31%. There were no major complications observed. Further, we did not observe any post-operative meningitis as our study group was vaccinated against pneumococcal and meningococcal diseases and Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib).

Conclusion: CI is an effective and safe surgical procedure for the treatment and rehabilitation of people who are deaf. It is possible to avoid complications by using meticulous surgical methods and regular post-operative monitoring to identify and treat any issues as soon as possible, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Keywords: cochlear implant; deafness; deprived; indira gandhi institute of medical sciences; kuppuswamy socioeconomic scale; posterior tympanotomy; socio-demographic; surgical complications.

Figure 1. Distance from the cochlear implant center to the home of patients