International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology (2004) 68, 1185—1188 The auditory performance in children using cochlear implants: effects of mental function Hui-Mei Yang a , Cheng-Yu Lin a , Yung-Jung Chen a,b , Jiunn-Liang Wu a, * a Department of Otolaryngology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, No. 138, Sheng-Li Road, Tainan 704, Taiwan b Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan Received 22 December 2003; received in revised form 6 April 2004; accepted 7 April 2004 KEYWORDS Mental function; Auditory perception; Cochlear implants Summary Obejective: Mental function is considered to affect the post-operative outcomes of deaf children with cochlear implants. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of mental function on the auditory performance in children with cochlear implants. Methods: In a retrospective review of data, 26 pre-lingual deaf- ened children received pre-operative evaluation of mental function and were divided into normal and retarded groups. Categories of auditory performance scale (CAP) was conducted at 1-year intervals after implantation. ANCOVA was used for statistic anal- ysis. Results: The average scores of auditory performance in normal group (n = 14) were 3.93 (S.D. 1.07) and 5.86 (S.D. 0.95) at 1- and 2-year post-implantation. While the average scores in the retarded group were 2.5 (S.D. 1.51) and 4.17 (S.D. 1.85), both groups demonstrated obvious improvement in speech perception (F 103.12, P < 0.001) during the first 2 post-operative years. The auditory performance in the normal group was significantly superior to the retarded group (F 8.67, P < 0.01). However, the interaction between the duration of the device use and mental status showed no significant difference in the auditory perception performance (F 1.575, P = 0.222). Conclusions: The results revealed the mental function plays as one of the predictive parameters of auditory performance in profoundly hearing impaired children after cochlear implantation. © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Early intervention of auditory rehabilitation is very important for pre-lingually deafened chil- dren, especially in their development of speech and language skills [1]. Cochlear implantation is an alternative method, when not enough benefit is obtained by a congenital deafened child after re- ceiving hearing aids. The implantation of cochlear is an invasive treatment. Due to the related results of this operation were not being well-known be- * Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 6 2353535x5311; fax: +886 6 2377404. E-mail address: jiunn@mail.ncku.edu.tw (J.-L. Wu). fore, the indications of implantation were initially very strict. In recent years, some studies revealed that the major factors affecting the implantation outcomes were the age at onset, the duration of deafness and the length of cochlear implant use [2]. The success of cochlear implantation has led to a broadening of candidacy criteria. Therefore, the deaf children who use hearing aids with less benefits, can receive cochlear implants for learning spoken language [3]. For very young and prelingually deaf children, the development of language has a close relation- ship to the mental function. Through the evaluation of the mental function, we can choose the suitable candidates before implantation and predict the 0165-5876/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijporl.2004.04.011