Complications Requiring Cochlear Reimplantation

INTRODUCTION: Surgery for revision of cochlear implantation is an unusual but not uncommon occurrence. The purpose of this study was to discuss the major complications of cochlear implantation that we observed in 11out of 275 patients who underwent cochlear implantation in Khalili Hospital at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 275patients who underwent cochlear implantation between 2003 and 2009 was performed. All of the patients were followed for one to five years. RESULTS: Only 11 patients needed to undergo revision surgery or take medication. Out of those, five patients were referred with signs of device failure, all of whom underwent reimplantation. For the rest of the patients with complications, one patient underwent surgery due to a misplaced electrode, two patients had poor telemetry due to migration of the implant magnet, one patient presented with meningitis that was managed by medical treatment, and two patients presented with a massive scalp hematoma that responded to medical treatment. CONCLUSIONS: In our study the most common cause of a need for cochlear reimplantation was device failure.