Objective: The role of long-term hearing deprivation in cochlear implant performance is not well established, and the limits for implanting an auditory deprived ear are still unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of long-term auditory deprivation time on cochlear implant results. Study Design: Retrospective case review study. Setting: Cochlear implantation tertiary referral center. Patients: Adult patients with postlingual deafness. Intervention: Unilateral cochlear implantation between 2001 and January 2015. Main Outcome Measures: Age at implantation, sex, etiology of hearing loss, and duration of auditory deprivation in the implanted ear were collected. Cochlear implants results were expressed in terms of vowel identification, disyllabic word recognition, and sentence recognition. Spearman's correlation test was applied to determine the relationship between auditory deprivation time and speech recognition scores. Additionally, patients were divided according to their auditory deprivation time before implantation in group A (less than 10 yr) and group B (more than 10 yr). Results: One hundred three patients met inclusion criteria for this study. There were 61 patients in group A, with a mean deprivation time of 2.52 years. There were 42 patients in group B, with a mean deprivation time of 19.67 years. There were no statistically significant differences between both groups regarding speech recognition scores. Deprivation time in the implanted ear was not statistically correlated with cochlear implantation performance. Conclusions: Long-term auditory deprivation in the ear to be implanted does not negatively influence cochlear implantation results and should not be considered criterion to reject cochlear implantation.

Objective: To perform translation, cross‐cultural adaptation, and validation of the Penn Acoustic Neuroma Quality‐of‐Life Scale (PANQOL) to the Spanish language.Study Design: Prospective study.Setting: Tertiary neurotologic referral center.Subjects and Methods: PANQOL was translated and translated back, and a pretest trial was performed. The study included 27 individuals diagnosed with vestibular schwannoma. Inclusion criteria were adults with untreated vestibular schwannoma, diagnosed in the past 12 months. Feasibility, internal consistency, test‐retest reliability, construct validity, and ceiling and floor effects were assessed for the present study.Results: The mean overall score of the PANQOL was 69.21 (0‐100 scale, lowest to highest quality of life). Cronbach’s α was 0.87. Intraclass correlation coefficient was performed for each item, with an overall score of 0.92. The κ coefficient scores were between moderate and almost perfect in more than 92% of patients. Anxiety and energy domains of the PANQOL were correlated with both physical and mental components of the SF‐12. Hearing, balance, and pain domains were correlated with the SF‐12 physical component. Facial and general domains were not significantly correlated with any component of the SF‐12. Furthermore, the overall score of the PANQOL was correlated with the physical component of the SF‐12.Conclusion: Feasibility, internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity outcomes in the current study support the validity of the Spanish version of the PANQOL.

The most frequent sequelae following a translabyrinthine approach for vestibular schwannoma resection is complete hearing loss on theaffected side. Such patients could benefit from a cochlear implant, provided that two essential requisites are met before surgery: a preservedcochlear nerve and a patent cochlea to accommodate the electrode array. The goal of our study is to determine the prevalence andextent of cochlear ossification following a translabyrinthine approach. Postoperative MRI of 41 patients were retrospectively reviewed.Patients were classified according to the degree of cochlear obliteration into three groups (patent cochlea, partially obliterated cochlea andtotally obliterated cochlea). The interval between surgery and the first MRI was studied as well as its relationship with the rate of cochlearossification. At first postoperative MRI (mean interval of 20 months), 78% of patients showed some degree of cochlear ossification. Differenceswere found in the time interval between surgery and first MRI for each group, showing a smaller interval of time the patent cochleagroup (p > 0.05). When MRI was performed before the first year after surgery, a larger rate of patent cochlea was found (p > 0.05). Thepresent study suggests that cochlear ossification is a time-depending process, whose grounds are still to be defined.