Auditory and language performance of children with bilateral profound hearing loss following simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantation: An observational study.

Profound prelingual sensorineural hearing loss affects oral language development. Cochlear implants, especially at an early age, enable the acquisition of functional auditory and language skills. This observational, retrospective, longitudinal study evaluated the auditory-language performance of 15 children with profound bilateral prelingual hearing loss who underwent bilateral cochlear implantation before the age of 5 and were followed up at 2 and 5 years after activation. We used an ad hoc functional scale to classify performance. The median age at implantation was 1.8 years (0.7-3.7). At 2 years, three patients showed excellent performance; at 5 years, 10 achieved this. Eleven children showed improvement between the two assessments, with no deterioration in any case.