Spontaneous recovery of profound post-meningitic hearing loss

The timing of insertion of a cochlear implant (CI) in post-meningitic senso rineural hearing loss is, in spite of recent advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis of the condition, still controversial. The danger of la byrinthitis ossificans allows only a little time to decide whether to impla nt a CI or not. On the other hand the clinician needs to be certain that no residual hearing is present and whether or not the patient will benefit fr om conventional amplification. A well-documented case of early spontaneous recovery of a profound post-meningitic sensorineural hearing loss in a chil d is presented and the relevant literature reviewed.