Last week the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery published a study that the presence of cochlear implants increases the risk of bacterial infections that can cause meningitis in recipients.
As a solution to this, it is suggested "The discovery increases the need to educate the public on the need for meningitis vaccinations in potential cochlear implant recipients".
Why not just not implant at all? Where's the money to ensure alternatives are more attractive?
Yes I'm fed up of having to create CI entries, but it dominates the news. Where's the stories relating to BSL, and just general DEAF links? There's little or nothing, and kind of illustrates media bias.
Related:
CI to blame for death by meningitis
Cochlear Implantation Increases Meningitis RiskConfirming what physicians have long speculated, a new study published in the April edition of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery determines that the presence of cochlear implants increases the risk of bacterial infections that can cause meningitis in recipients.
The discovery increases the need to educate the public on the need for meningitis vaccinations in potential cochlear implant recipients.
The study involved making cochleostomy incisions (opening of the inner ear spaces of the cochlea the most important moment in the procedure) in the ears of 54 healthy rats, implanting cochlear devices in 36 of them, and then monitoring them for the presence of meningitis, a third of the rats with cochlear implants were stricken with meningitis. The study's authors found that in these cases, cochlear implantation lowers the threshold needed for pneumococcal baterial infection, the bacterium that causes meningitis.
The study's authors stress that it remains their belief that the benefits of cochlear implants far exceed the risk of meningitis, which can be managed by education and vaccination efforts.
Worldwide, 90 of the 60,000 people receiving cochlear implant have been stricken with meningitis, drawing deep concern within the international medical community. Previous research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that children who receive cochlear implants to counter hearing loss are more likely to develop meningitis.
Otolaryngolog Head and Neck Surgery is the official scientific journal of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS). The study's authors are Benjamin P. C. Wei, MD, PhD; Robert K. Shepherd, PhD; Roy M. Robins-Browne, MB, PhD; Graeme M. Clark, FRCS, PhD; and Stephen J. O'Leary, FRACS, PhD. They are associated with the University of Melbourne's Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
The study is the recipient of the Academy's 2006 Resident Research Award in the Basic Science Category.
Comments (6)
Give it a rest, you're becoming boringly repetitive.... or get a CI !
Posted by MM | April 10, 2007 7:23 PM
This is what is happening in the media. I'm bored with it too, and wish people would get the point already.
Also, oone forces you to read this blog. Go away if you don't like it. Not your blog, not for you to dictate content.
Posted by Alison | April 10, 2007 7:47 PM
I'm beginning to wonder just WHO this blog belongs to !
Posted by MM | April 11, 2007 9:44 AM
Actually there was ANOTHER short article on a CI issue, in Saturday's Guardian, in the main section, page 10! If you haven't seen it I can type it all out? S
Posted by tigerbee | April 24, 2007 9:24 AM
Hi Steve - I caught it, and was still in my blog drafts folder from last Sat. Think I've got the right one. Have published it now ... check a few entries above. Was that the one you were talking about?
Posted by Alison | April 26, 2007 10:21 AM
Hi Alison, yes that was the one - seems to be one a week now eh?! sigh
Posted by tigerbee | April 27, 2007 10:28 PM