Re:Gene Therapy Allows an 11-Year-Old Boy to Hear
by vladms on Wednesday January 24, 2024 @06:18AM
(#39116003)
Very interesting paper!
Still, lots of work to do, to quote "However, it was not possible to control other factors, such as the socio-economic environment of the participants.".
In my view this could affect the study quite a lot (or not, but unknown for now). They mention the initial intervention was 3 months on-site, but after "the patient returned to his area of residence, where he/she would have speech therapy and special education".
But if you want cochlear implant specific data, here-- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10760633/
You're right that time narrows the gap between early implantation and later implantation, but the slope of that narrowing is pretty small by the 20 year mark (and barely statistically significant in this moderately-sized study) and the gap is relatively big.
The difference of time of implantation between the two groups was relatively small (mean implantation at 45 months vs. 34 months) and produces a gap that's durable for decades. >130 months is way, way, out from 45 months.