Long-term usefulness and problems associated with cochlear implant in the late-stage elderly

Abstract

In the present study, we investigated the usefulness of, and problems associated with, cochlear implant (CI) in the late-stage elderly. The participants included 21 post-lingually deafened CI users aged ≥65 years who underwent CI surgery at our department 10 years ago. We retrospectively examined the current use of CI in these patients, the effectiveness of CI 10 years after surgery, and changes in speech perception over time. Overall, 15/21 patients still use CI, and could maintain good speech perception in the long term. Three patients died during the study period, but all continued to use CI until the end. Three patients who stopped using CI had poor speech perception and were not able to fully utilize their CI. The age-related changes in the speech perception revealed that the results were stable and good until the late elderly stage. However, an age-related decline in speech perception may occur in the late elderly stage.