First Reported Cochlear Implantation in a Child with Total Artificial Heart

We report a case of 15-year-old boy with postlingual bilateral total hearing loss following ototoxic medication during his pediatric intensive care unit stay. The patient received the SynCardia total artificial heart implant (50 mL; SynCardia Systems, Inc., Tucson, AZ, USA) for end-stage biventricular heart failure as a bridge to heart transplant. During his time on the urgent heart transplant wait list, he underwent successful cochlear implantation following optimized coagulation and hemostasis status and appropriate anesthetic preparation. Our case represents the world's first successful cochlear implant in a pediatric patient who received an artificial heart. Despite complexities in this patient population, elective surgical procedures can be performed safely with acceptable morbidity using a collaborative approach with the heart transplant team, including input from cardiovascular surgery, pediatric cardiology, anes thesiology, consultation-liaison psychiatry, physical therapy and rehabilitation, infectious diseases and clinical microbiology, and intensive care unit staff.