A retrospective review of parents' perceptions of the impact of bilateral cochlear implants on their child's quality of life.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the impact of simultaneous and sequential bilateral cochlear implantation on deaf children's quality of life (QoL) and to investigate the impact of inter-implant time delay for the sequentially implanted children.

METHODS

All completed questionnaires of the Brief Assessment of Parental Perception (BAPP), which had been routinely filled out by parents at annual review, were analysed for children with at least 12 months of bilateral implant experience. The responses for the simultaneous implanted group were compared to those who received sequential implants. Within the sequential group, the impact of shorter (<7 years) and longer (>7 years) inter-implant delays on QoL were compared.

RESULTS

There were a total of 176 children in the sequential group and 97 in the simultaneous group. Results indicated that most children wore their devices regularly and significant improvements in QoL were reported for all children particularly in communication and learning. QoL scores were higher for the children with simultaneous implants, followed by children with a shorter time delay between implants.

CONCLUSION

Both simultaneous and sequential bilateral cochlear implants significantly improved the functioning and QoL of deaf children.