Cochlear implants in prelingually deaf children.

All private and public residential and day schools for the deaf in the U.S. that have 100 or more students were surveyed to see how many prelingually deafened students they had with cochlear implants and how many of these students were still using the device. Responses came from 70% (45 of 64) of those schools surveyed. Of the 151 implanted children identified, 71 (47%) were no longer using the cochlear implant. Of the remaining 80 children (53%) still wearing the device, we could not specifically determine by survey the percentage who derived significant benefit from the device and the percentage who did not. However, numerous comments by those returning the questionnaires indicated despondency over the results of the implant.