3. Results
28 patients (16 males, 12 females) underwent cochlear implantation.
Their mean age was 4.5 years (range: 1.5 – 9.4). There were no
technical difficulties that forced the surgeon to switch to the
microscope. This means both planned surgical steps were performed solely
with VITOM® 3D. Initially, the tripods were at the surgeon’s
side, but this arrangement restricted the surgeon’s hand movements
slightly; therefore, the tripods were moved to the other side after the
second surgery. Mean time was 7.4 min (range: 6.0 – 9.0 min) for
equipment preparation prior to the surgery. Mean time was 9.9 min
(range: 4.6 – 24.0) for posterior tympanotomy and 3.0 min (range: 1.0
– 19.0) for electrode insertion. The time outliers in 2 cases were due
to anatomical abnormalities. No patients experienced intra- or
post-operative complications. In all cases, responses of the auditory
nerve were obtained after the first insertion of the electrode.
Individual scores are presented in chronological order in Table 1. The
frequency distributions of the scores are presented in Table 2. All
parameters of the VITOM® 3D system use were rated between “neutral”
and “very good”. Staff comfort was rated “very good” in 82.1%.
Surgeon comfort was rated “very good” in 75% of cases. Lighting and
focusing during posterior tympanotomy was better than during electrode
insertion. Overall, the scores improved throughout the surgeries.