How to judge the safety of cochlear implant?

When doing cochlear implant surgery, some parents hesitate because they can't bear to have their children cut open when they are young, which will delay the opportunity of children's hearing creation and reconstruction, and then lead to poor hearing and language development after cochlear implant. Parents are worried about the causes of implant surgery, including major wounds and complications caused by surgery. Common surgical incision methods have been reported to be related to incision infection. Whether it is a large incision (about 15 cm) such as C-shape, inverted U-shape and inverted J-shape, or a small incision (about 4.5~6.5 cm) such as linear, arc and micro-incision behind the ear, it is to avoid the incision from overlapping with the cochlear implant placed under the skin.

No matter how the incision is cut, the invariable rule is to avoid the incision being too close to the implanted receptor stimulator. According to previous experience, the distance between the incision and the receptor stimulator must be greater than 1.5 cm to be safe. Therefore, while trying to reduce the wound size of cochlear implant surgery to improve the wound appearance, we must also consider the smooth operation and maintain the lowest incidence of surgical complications as much as possible. If the surgical incision is too small, the angle of the surgical field of vision will be small, which will limit the relationship, but it will increase the unnecessary difficulty. At present, the popular "minimally invasive surgery" refers not only to the size of the surgical wound, but also to the fact that the electrode is inserted without damaging the cell tissue in the cochlea or even the electrode itself. In addition, when the implantation incision is small, special attention should be paid to fixing the implant in place to avoid delayed electrode bundle prolapse and affect the function of cochlear implant. In fact, there is not much difference in appearance between the wound of 4.5 cm and the wound of 6.5 cm after healing due to the coverage of hair.