The Influence of Age at the Time of Cochlear Implantation on Hearing Threshold in Prelingually Deaf Children

Background: there always has been a question about the bestage for cochlear implantation (ci) in prelingual deaf children.the age factor in the outcome of cochlear implantation inprelingual deaf children has been the subject of many studies.the aim of the present study was to find the effect of age at thetime of implantation on hearing threshold of these children.methods: one hundred and nine prelingual deaf children whohad undergone ci were enrolled. the mean hearing threshold(ht) at octave intervals from 125 to 8000 hz at different periodsfrom the operation time were compared between those patientswhose age at the time of implantation were less than 24 monthsand those whose age were equal or greater than 24 months.results: the mean age of patients at the time of implantationwas 38.9 months and a half of them had less than 28 months.there was no difference in mean ht between the two agegroups across different measurement periods. a multiple regressionmodel showed that device type was the sole significantpredictor of mean ht at the first and third months afterimplantation, where age replaced it at the sixth month.conclusion: these results suggest that what had been foundin other studies as a favorable effect of younger age at the timeof implantation on speech perception cannot be explained by abetter hearing, and there are other important factors includingrehabilitation programs beginning at a younger age that mayexplain those findings.