An audit of referrals to the Southern Cochlear Implant Paediatric Programme

Aim To audit the age at referral and time to assessment and implantation in children presenting to the Southern Cochlear Implant Paediatric Programme and identify any delay in implantation, particularly in individuals with pre-lingual sensorineural hearing loss. Methods All paediatric referrals to the Southern Cochlear Implant Programme from March 2003-March 2008 were evaluated retrospectively. The Student t-test was used to compare median time intervals between those with and without risk factors for Sensorineural hearing loss. Results Seventy five children were referred, 42 with pre-lingual deafness and 33 with post-lingual deafness. The median age of referral was 17 months with a range of 1 to 203 months. Thirty-five children with pre-lingual deafness were accepted as candidates and implanted, 6 were declined as they were too old to receive benefit from cochlear implantation. Of these 6 children who were declined, 4 had not been adequately diagnosed despite having risk factors for sensorineural hearing loss. There was no significant difference in the age of referral in pre-lingually deafened children between those with risk factors and those without risk factors. Conclusion The age at referral of pre-lingually deafened children to the Southern Cochlear Implant Programme is unacceptably high, particularly in those children who have known risk factors for sensorineural hearing loss.