Background Bacterial meningitis is the most common cause of secondary sensori-neural hearing loss in pediatrics. Due to concomitant neurological squeal such as seizure, visual impairment and hydrocephalus the successful outcome of cochlear implantation is doubtful. The aim of this survey is assessment of cochlear implantation outcomes in post meningitis deaf children.

Methods Patients who were implanted at Baqiyatallah Cochlear Implant Center, during the years 2008–2010 due to post meningitis deaf childrenwere enrolled. the intraoperatively and Postoperative auditory and speech abilities were explored and compared.

Results Two hundred eighty-four children with hearing loss were evaluated and eight children who were diagnosed as Post Meningitis Deafness were enrolled. The mean age of children at the meningitis diagnosis was 15.75±6.77 months and the mean age at cochlear implantation was 31.12±1.27 months. Electrode insertion in 6 out of eight patients was complete but 2 children required cochlear drill-out and in one child short electrode was used. The survey shows that auditory and language skills improved as well as expected. Improvement of auditory and speech abilities after 6 months was statistically significant (P.value< 0.05).

Conclusions It seems that cochlear implantation outcome in post meningitis deaf children is not the same as non meningitis deaf children but the cochlear implantation is the only and in most cases the best way of helping these children, particularly if the gap time between deafness and surgery is minimized and the ossification is limited. Variation in outcome is not constant reason to restrict cochlear implantation in children with post meningitis deafness.