Cochlear Implants in Single-Sided Deafness. Comparison Between Children and Adult Populations With Post-lingually Acquired Severe to Profound Hearing Loss

Abstract

Objective: To determine audiological and clinical results of cochlear implantation (CI) comparing two populations with single-sided deafness (SSD): post-lingually deaf children between 6 and 12 years of age, and post-lingually deaf adults, in order to evaluate the effect of CI in different age groups.Design: Retrospective case review.Setting: Tertiary clinic.Patients and Method: Twenty-three children and twenty-one adult patients that were candidates for CI with single-side deafness were included. In all cases we evaluate: Speech perception thresholds; disyllabic words test (65 dB SPL) were performed in the modalities S0–SCI–SNH and Auditory Lateralization Test. The Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) questionnaire was also used. All results were obtained after 12 months of CI activation.Results: In children, the most common etiology was idiopathic sensory-neural hearing loss. They showed positive results in the Auditory Lateralization Test. In the Speech Test, word recognition in noise improved from 2% preoperatively to 61.1% at a mean follow-up of 1 year (S0 condition) in children [test with signal in CI side 60% and signal normal hearing side (plugged) 31%]. The processor was used for >12 h in all cases. With respect to the SSQ questionnaire, parents were more satisfied within the postoperative period than within the preoperative period. For adults, the most common etiology was idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Positive results in the Auditory Lateralization Test were found. With respect to the Speech Test in quiet conditions: Word recognition in noise improved from 5.7% preoperatively to 71.8% at a mean follow-up of 1 year [test with signal in CI side 68% and signal normal hearing side (plugged) 41%]. The processor was used for >12 h. In the SSQ questionnaire, the post-operative results showed a beneficial effect of the CI. No adverse events were reported during the study period. No differences were found between children and adults in all tests in this study.Conclusions: Cochlear implantation in post-lingually deaf adults and children with SSD can achieve a speech perception outcome comparable with CI in conventional candidates. Improvements in spatial hearing were also observed. Careful patient selection and counseling regarding potential benefits are important to optimize outcomes.

Quality of Life and Audiological Benefits in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users in Romania: Systematic Review and Cohort Study

“…A total of 79 participants achieved a mean overall score of 6.05(1.63) for the health/hearingrelated QoL, assessed by the Speech Spatial Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ12), which appears to be rather low in comparison to other publications [49][50][51][52]. Emphasis needs to be placed on the rather young study cohort, in which speech might not have been as developed due to age, not due to hearing status.…”

Impact of unilateral hearing loss in early development

“…Since the 2019 Food and Drug Administration approval for cochlear implant for children ages 5 and up with SSD, many additional recent publications have significantly bolstered an evolving body of evidence revealing the effectiveness and numerous potential benefits of cochlear implant use in pediatric recipients with SSD [15 ▪▪ ,48 ▪ ,65 ▪ ,69 ▪ ,70–74]. While there is not yet uniform consensus as to the ideal age for implantation in children with SSD, an accumulating body of evidence has demonstrated that shorter duration of deafness, ranging from less than 4–7 years, is associated with greater postimplantation performance [48 ▪ ,65 ▪ ,69 ▪ ].…”

Cochlear implantation for paediatric and adult cases of unilateral and asymmetric hearing loss

“…There are discrepancies across studies on this topic. Most studies report speech recognition performance as similar between the UHL/AHL and traditional cochlear implant groups [24,31,32], though one study reports that traditional cochlear implant users achieve higher scores in the implanted ear within the first year of use [33]. Although the assessment of monaural hearing abilities is typically conducted clinically and as part of research investigations, improved speech recognition in the poorer hearing ear is not the main reason for pursuing cochlear implantation for patients with UHL/AHL, as previously discussed by Deep et al [24].…”