Management of major post-cochlear implant wound infections

In post-cochlear implant (CI) wound infections, a commonly asked question is whether the device could be salvaged and if so, what the challenges were. The aim of this article is to study patients with major post-CI wound infections, identify the risk factors and discuss the management. The case records all CI recipients who developed post-CI wound infections that required parenteral antibiotics treatment or any form of surgery between Jan 1997 and Dec 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. Among the 432 CI surgeries performed by the senior author, 7 developed major post-CI wound infection (1.62 %). In children, the commonest etiology was from stitch abscesses. In four out of the five children who developed stitch abscesses, four were due to the use of non-absorbable polypropylene sutures, a technique which had since been discontinued. In adults, the cause was due to the late effects of prior radiotherapy for head and neck tumors. The commonest organism isolated from wound cultures was Staphylococcus aureus. Salvage surgery (complemented by antibiotics) was attempted in six out of eight patients managed. All were successfully salvaged with surgery entailing either skin flap reconstruction (2 patients), transposition of the CI body to new location (1 patient) or both (3 patients). Skin flap reconstruction surgery alone failed to control the infection in patients with a negative culture result and needed a subsequent transposition surgery of the device. Device transposition surgery was a consistently effective therapeutic approach, but carried a higher risk of iatrogenic damage to the electrode array as it might be embedded in new bone.