The Additional Hospital Costs of the LAURA Cochlear Implant in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of the University Hospital of Leuven

From the start of 1994 until 1996 ten patients (eight adults and two children) received cochlear implants after careful preoperative selection in our department. Only the deaf adults implanted with the LAURA cochlear implant were included in this retrospective analysis. In this study, the additional hospital costs associated with cochlear implantations were estimated. In doing this, a differentiation was made between 'fixed' costs and 'variable' costs. In general, the average cost of cochlear implantation was 1,186,741 BF (29,418.54 EUR) per implanted adult and a direct fixed cost of 262,880 BF (6,516.62 EUR) was needed for the computer requisites. In general, the cochlear implant enhance speech-perception scores in the postlingually deafened patients as well as in the prelingually deafened adults. After intensive training, all implanted adults of the University Hospital Leuven could recognize the segmental aspects of speech with scores above the level of significance.