Clinical outcomes following Cochlear™ BIA300 bone anchored hearing aid implantation in children.

OBJECTIVE

Bone anchored hearing implants (BAHI) have been in use for over 30 years, and are commonly implanted in children for a range of indications. The Cochlear™ BIA300 system was launched in 2010 and used at The Birmingham Children's Hospital from 2011. Here we report the long-term outcomes of children implanted with the Cochlear™ BIA300 BAHI system in our centre.

METHODS

A retrospective case note analysis was performed to identify outcomes in all children who underwent BIA300 implantation between 2011 and 2013.

RESULTS

52 children with a total of 78 implants were included. Mean age at implantation was 8.7 years. Mean follow-up was 43.5 months. Overall, 60 (77%) implants developed soft tissue complications requiring treatment. Forty-eight (62%) required topical treatment; 27 (35%) required systemic treatment; and 27 (35%) required surgical soft tissue revision under general anaesthesia.

CONCLUSIONS

The Cochlear™ BIA300 system appears to be associated with higher than expected rates of soft tissue reaction in children, with late as well as early soft tissue complications requiring both medical and surgical treatment.