Evaluation of a wireless remote microphone in bimodal cochlear implant recipients

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the benefit of a wireless remote microphone (MM) for speech recognition in noise in bimodal adult cochlear implant (CI) users both in a test setting and in daily life. Design: This prospective study measured speech reception thresholds in noise in a repeated measures design with factors including bimodal hearing and MM use. The participants also had a 3-week trial period at home with the MM. Study sample: Thirteen post-lingually deafened adult bimodal CI users. Results: A significant improvement in SRT of 5.4 dB was found between the use of the CI with the MM and the use of the CI without the MM. By also pairing the MM to the hearing aid (HA) another improvement in SRT of 2.2 dB was found compared to the situation with the MM paired to the CI alone. In daily life, participants reported better speech perception for various challenging listening situations, when using the MM in the bimodal condition. Conclusion: There is a clear advantage of bimodal listening (CI and HA) compared to CI alone when applying advanced wireless remote microphone techniques to improve speech understanding in adult bimodal CI users.

Application of Digital Remote Wireless Microphone Technology in Single-Sided Deaf Cochlear Implant Recipients

“…Other advanced remote wireless microphone systems, Mini Microphones 1 and 2þ, also enabled a significant improvement of speech recognition in noise in unilateral or bilateral CI recipients as well as bimodal CI-HA users (De Ceulaer et al, 2017 6 ). In bimodal recipients, the application of Mini Microphone 2þ on both the CI and HA yielded a significant improvement compared with unilateral use with the CI only (Vroegop et al, 2017 24 ). Furthermore, the benefits of remote wireless microphone systems were shown for pediatric unilateral and bilateral CI recipients with bilateral hearing loss (Schafer and Thibodeau, 2006 19 ; Razza et al, 2017 18 ).…”

Speech Recognition in Noise in Single-Sided Deaf Cochlear Implant Recipients Using Digital Remote Wireless Microphone Technology

“…Unilateral, bimodal, and bilateral CI recipients obtained a benefit in speech recognition when using either of the two Mini Microphones, and a better speech performance with the Mini Microphone 21 compared with the Mini Microphone 1 (De Ceulaer et al, 2017). Vroegop et al (2017) compared speech perception in bimodal adult CI recipients for different applications of the Mini Microphone 21. Bimodal use of the Mini Microphone 21 yielded a significant improvement compared with unilateral use with the CI only.…”

A directional remote-microphone for bimodal cochlear implant recipients

“…By acquiring the signal at or near the source, the signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) at the listener's ear is improved and consequently the negative effects of ambient noise, as well as those of distance and reverberation, are reduced. Previous research has shown considerable improvement in unilateral CI users' speech recognition in noise (De Ceulaer et al 2016;Razza et al 2017;Schafer and Thibodeau 2004;Schafer et al 2009;Vroegop et al 2017;Wolfe et al 2015a;Wolfe, Morais, and Schafer 2015b). A directional mode of the wireless microphone would possibly improve speech recognition even more, but specific, comparative data is lacking.…”

“…A directional mode of the wireless microphone would possibly improve speech recognition even more, but specific, comparative data is lacking. The previously mentioned studies used either an omnidirectional mode of the wireless microphone (Razza et al 2017;Vroegop et al 2017;Wolfe, Morais, and Schafer 2015b), an adaptive mode changing between omnidirectional and directional depending on the amount of the background noise (De Ceulaer et al 2016), or a directional mode (Schafer et al 2009).…”

“…Bimodal hearing has been shown to improve speech recognition in noise compared with unilateral CI use alone (Blamey et al 2015;Dorman et al 2015;Ching, Van Wanrooy, and Dillon 2007;Illg et al 2014;Morera et al 2012). Only one study (Vroegop et al 2017) described the combined effect of a wireless microphone and bimodal hearing. Their results showed that the use of the wireless microphone in the bimodal situation, connected to both the CI and the HA, provided additional benefit compared with the use of the wireless microphone with the CI alone.…”