Bilateral cochlear implants in children

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) use on speech perception in quiet and noise. The eleven children included in our study were prelingually deaf. With the two-stage technique, the two CIs were performed in all children. They underwent testing from four to 28 months after activation of bilateral hearing. Speech perception tests in quiet and in noise were performed in all children with the first CI alone and bilaterally. In speech-in-noise test, words and noise were presented from the front. Subjects showed varying degrees of improved performance on speech perception tests in quiet and noise according to bilateral auditory experience. Bilateral CIs can offer a substantial benefit in speech perception in quiet and noise.

Contrasting benefits from contralateral implants and hearing aids in cochlear implant users

“…While such measures may be inflated by better ear contributions, the greater experience with the first-implanted ear (CI-1) means it is more likely to be the ear with better performance, at least for sequentially implanted children with longer intervals between ears. Results generally indicate that the benefit in quiet is in approximate agreement with adult outcomes (Kühn-Innacker et al, 2004;Bohnert et al, 2006;Peters et al, 2007;Zeitler et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2009;Gordon and Papsin, 2009;Scherf et al, 2009a;Sparreboom et al, 2011). For co-located speech and noise, benefits are marginally larger than in quiet, and are also larger than for adults tested in noise possibly due to better ear contributions.…”

A Longitudinal Study in Children With Sequential Bilateral Cochlear Implants: Time Course for the Second Implanted Ear and Bilateral Performance

“…The dominance of sequential implantation has been driven by the many unilateral pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients who were implanted before bilateral implantation was considered and the fact that worldwide, the majority of children continue to be implanted unilaterally (Cullington, Bele, Brinton, & Lutman, 2013;Peters et al, 2010). During the decision process for individual children about second-side implantation, clinicians and families must consider the type and extent of benefit to be expected, for both the second implanted ear and bilaterally, and the rate of improvement to expect after varied years of unilateral CI experience.Pediatric studies have focused on bilateral compared with unilateral performance in the same individual using one of three study designs: bilateral compared with the first implanted (CI1) ear, bilateral compared to the better performing ear (Galvin, Mok, & Dowell, 2007;Kim et al, 2009;Kühn-Inacker, Shehata-Dieler, Müller, & Helms, 2004;Wolfe et al, 2007), or bilateral compared with each ear individually (Galvin, Hughes, & Mok, 2010;Galvin, Mok, Dowell, & Briggs, 2008;Peters, Litovsky, Parkinson, & Lake, 2007;Steffens et al, 2008; for reviews of pediatric sequential bilateral studies, see Dowell et al, 2011;Johnston, Durieux-Smith, Angus, O'Connor, & Fitzpatrick, 2009;Lammers, Venekamp, Grolman, & van der Heijden, 2014;Sparreboom et al, 2010). Most published studies report results from a single time point with participants having varied amounts of bilateral implant experience, rather than following the same participants longitudinally.…”