Cochlear Implantation From the Perspective of Genetic Background

While cochlear implantation (CI) technology has greatly improved over the past 40 years, one aspect of CI that continues to pose difficulties is the variability of outcomes due to numerous factors involved in postimplantation performance. The electric acoustic stimulation (EAS) system has expanded indications for CI to include patients with residual hearing, and is currently becoming a standard therapy for these patients. Genetic disorders are known to be the most common cause of congenital/early‐onset sensorineural hearing loss, and are also involved in a considerable proportion of cases of late‐onset hearing loss. There has been a great deal of progress in the identification of deafness genes over the last two decades. Currently, more than 100 genes have been reported to be associated with non‐syndromic hearing loss. Patients possessing a variety of deafness gene mutations have achieved satisfactory auditory performance after CI/EAS, suggesting that identification of the genetic background facilitates prediction of post‐CI/EAS performance. When the intra‐cochlear etiology is associated with a specific genetic background, there is a potential for good CI performance. Thus, it is essential to determine which region of the cochlea is affected by identifying the responsible genes. This review summarizes the genetic background of the patients receiving CI/EAS, and introduces detailed clinical data and CI/EAS outcomes in representative examples. Anat Rec, 303:563–593, 2020. © 2020 The Authors. The Anatomical Record published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Anatomists.