Meningitis is the main cause of acquired sensorineural hearing loss in children. The patient may also present motor disorders, visual, vestibular, language and attention deficits as well as inability for learning. Characteristically the hearing loss due to meningitis is bilateral profound sensorineural symmetric and descendent and it is more common in males and in children under 5 years old and it brings severe implications in the emotional, social and development. AIM: To compare the performance of two groups of pre-lingually deaf implanted children, with age varying from 1 year and 10 months to 6 years, with hearing loss due to meningitis and other varied causes. STUDY DESIGN: Transversal cohorte. MATERIAL AND METHOD: 63 profoundly deaf implanted children were evaluated, 25 (40%) were male and 38 (60%) were females. In 12 cases (19%) the hearing loss was caused by meningitis and in 51 cases (81%) hearing loss was due to a variety of causes. All participants were submitted to ear nose throat examination and clinical and objective audiological evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: the occurrence of partial insertion was higher in the meningitis group. There were no statically significant differences on word and phoneme recognition as well as in the questionnaire for evaluation of the hearing (MAIS) and language (MUSS) skills between the groups.
meningites; cochlear implant; deafness; children
