Pediatric Auditory Brainstem Implantation: Surgical, Electrophysiologic, and Behavioral Outcomes.

It was a feasibility study of five children, so it cannot estimate how common the outcomes are. All children were pre-linguistic, and no post-linguistic or peri-linguistic children were enrolled despite the original plan. Children lived in five states with different school services and communication options, so therapy and education were not controlled. The language test was not normed for children with hearing loss and was administered with spoken language, so it underestimates visual language skills. No quality-of-life measure sensitive to sound awareness was used. All children used Cued Speech or sign language, so the study cannot show what communication would be with sound alone. S1 and S2 had perioperative complications, and long-term consequences are unknown. Parent-reported meaningful use of sound can be influenced by parent projection, and scores fluctuated. Non-auditory side effects persisted in three children despite repeated programming changes.

The ABI used was made by Cochlear. Craig A. Buchman is a member of the Cochlear Corp. and Advanced Bionics Corp. surgeon advisory boards. Holly F.B. Teagle is a member of a Cochlear Corp., Advanced Bionics Corp., and Med El Corp. audiology advisory board. The remaining authors declared no conflicts. The paper is listed as supported by NIH and non-U.S. government funding.

Do not read the sound detection result as evidence that the ABI restores spoken language. All five children detected sound, but none showed open-set speech perception, and all needed visual communication.