Predictors of Cochlear Implant Performance

TLDR

Open‑set speech understanding with cochlear implants is common, yet performance varies widely among users. The study aimed to identify pre‑operative parameters that predict post‑operative cochlear implant outcomes. Thirty‑seven adult postlingually deafened Nucleus CI users underwent comprehensive pre‑operative audiometry, electrical stimulation, psychological testing, imaging, and speech‑understanding assessments in auditory, visual, and audiovisual conditions, with follow‑up testing at 6 and 12 months. Duration of deafness and residual hearing emerged as the strongest predictors of post‑operative performance, with temporal difference limen in round‑window stimulation as a secondary predictor. Keywords: cochlear implant, deafness, electrical stimulation, predictors, speech recognition.

Abstract

AbstractOpen set speech understanding with cochlear implants, without speechreading, is nowadays a common finding. However, there is a large variation in speech understanding between cochlear implant users. We tried to find pre-operative parameters which predicted the postoperative results. Thirty-seven adult postlingually deafened Nucleus cochlear implant users with a mean age of 46 years (range 16-68) and a mean duration of deafness of 15 years (range 1.5-47) were studied. Pre-operatively, we performed pure-tone audiometry, round window and ear canal electrical stimulation, psychological tests and imaging. Additionally, we measured pre-operatively speech understanding in the auditory, the visual and the audiovisual conditions with several tests which were also administered after 6 and 12 months' implant experience. Correlation analysis between the pre-operative variables and the post-operative factors showed that duration of deafness and residual hearing are the most important predictors. The temporal difference limen in pre-operative round window electrical stimulation is a secondary predictor.Key Words: Cochlear implantDeafnessElectrical stimulationPredictorsSpeech recognition