Status of Bilateral Cochlear Implantation in Malaysia

Advantages of bilateral Cochlear Implantation (CI) over unilateral implantation in individuals with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss are well established. In most developed countries, cochlear implant recipients receive full funding for bilateral implantation. In Malaysia, we have been advocating bilateral implantation since 2003.Our objective is to review all cases of unilateral & bilateral implantation that used the Cochlear Nucleus implants (Cochlear Ltd. Australia) and determined the percentage of bilateral implantation & investigate their affordability and sources of funding. Data were collected from all individuals who underwent CI from 1995 until 2013 to determine bilateral or single sided recipients, sources of funding and time interval for both the first and the second implant. 510 individuals underwent CI from 1995 to 2013. Overall, only 34 individuals have bilateral implantation (6.7%). Amongst these, all except one were done after 2003 (93.3%).Time interval of the sequential implantation were 5 months as shortest interval and 15 years as longest interval with an average interval of 3 years. Majority of individuals received full or partial funding from the government for the first implantation. With regards to second implantation, 26 were self funded & 5 were government funding. Less than ten percent of cochlear implant recipients in Malaysia received bilateral implantation. Although bilateral CI is highly recommended, only a small number of individuals can afford bilateral implantation in Malaysia. With increasing advancement of this technology & Malaysia as one of the developing countries, thus advocating bilateral cochlear implant to the government should be strongly pursued.