• Gabriel Reis Castro, Hágada Cristine Coelho Santiago, Rosauro Rodrigues de Aguiar, Ana Beatriz Gouveia de Almeida, Leonardo Santana Ramos Oliveira, and Ricardo Queiroz Gurgel.
• Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Programa de Pós-graduação em Gestão, Informação e Tecnologia em pesquisa - Aracaju (SE), Brazil.
• Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2022 May 1; 68 (5): 568-573.

ObjectiveThe primary objective was to analyze and report on the complications that occurred in the cochlear implant surgeries performed at a large philanthropic teaching hospital located in a low-income area of Brazil.MethodsA historical cohort study that analyzed surgical records of 432 patients of all age groups and both genders who received unilateral cochlear implant in a tertiary referral center that serves only Brazil's Public Health Care System patients, from February 2009 to December 2017.ResultsA total of 67 (15.5%) complications occurred in the cochlear implant surgeries, with 21 (5.4%) major complications. Minor complications occurred in 50 (12%) cases. The most frequent major complication was receiver-stimulator displacement (four cases). There were three cases of hardware failure. Only one case of meningitis and one case of facial nerve paralysis (grade VI in House-Brackmann scale) were found. Six patients needed to be explanted due to a major complication. The relative risk of major complications in the population aged 60 years and older was 4.41 (1.53-12.72; 95% confidence interval [CI]).ConclusionsElderly patients suffered more complications than younger patients. receiver-stimulator displacement and dizziness were the most frequent complications (major and minor, respectively). The overall complication rates were comparable to those in the literature. Age as an isolated risk factor for complications in cochlear implant surgery is a path to be explored in future observations.

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