Clinic - Week 7

This week in clinic I didn't see anything too exciting so I decided to look up an article on cochlear implants. This title of this article is From hearing screening to cochlear implantation: cochlear implants in children under 3 years of age and it was published in 2008.

As we all know, the importance of newborn hearing screening can not only detect those who need further testing but also expedite the process of amplification and if necessary, cochlear implant evaluation. This article took 2 groups; the first group was diagnosed by screening and the second group was diagnosed by traditional methods. The following was assessed: age at the time of diagnosis, age at the time of the first hearing aid fitting, and age at the time of cochlear implantation.

The results clearly showed that the children from group one (newborn hearing screening group)
had a significantly younger age of the time of diagnosis (6.9 months vs 15.4 months), age at the time of the first hearing aid fitting (9.3 months vs 17 months) and age at the time of cochlear implantation (26 months vs 32 months).

Not only will newborn hearing screening reduce the time before followup and intervention but it will also help eliminated differences in communication, and speech and language. I thought this was a great study but only a small number of patients were sampled. Only 9 in group 1 and only 21 in group 2.

Hope you like it, check it out!
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=101&sid=8fc70c53-7a00-4dea-9dec-992aa98698e2%40sessionmgr109