A Retrospective Multicentre Study Comparing Speech Perception Outcomes for Bilateral Implantation and Bimodal Rehabilitation
Blamey, P.J., Maat, B., Başkent, D., Mawman, D., Burke, E., Dillier, N., Beynon, A., Kleine-Punte, A., Govaerts, P.J., Skarzynski, P.H., Huber, A.M., Sterkers-Artières, F., Van de Heyning, P., O’Leary, S., Fraysse, B., Green, K., Sterkers, O., Venail, F., Skarzynski, H., Vincent, C., Truy, E., Dowell, R., Bergeron, F. & Lazard, D.S. Ear & Hearing, August 2015.
This international multicentre study (15 international CI centres) analysed retrospective data from 2,247 patients (4 brands represented, including Oticon Medical Digisonic SP patients). The goal was to compare speech perception outcomes in three different groups of users: those with a unilateral cochlear implant (CI/-), bimodal users with one cochlear implant and a hearing aid on the other side (CI/HA), and bilateral CI users with two CIs (CI/CI). Results showed that speech intelligibility in quiet and in noise was significantly better in both bilateral (CI/CI) and bimodal (CI/HA) users when compared to unilateral CI users (CI/-). Bilateral CI users showed an improvement of +11% in quiet and +16% in noise compared to unilateral CI users. Bimodal (CI/HA) users showed improvements of +6% in quiet and +9% in noise. This data again establishes the advantages of bilateral cochlear implantation over unilateral CI use. The authors conclude by saying that on average, for patients with very low preoperative performance, a second CI is likely to provide slightly better post-operative speech intelligibility outcomes than an additional HA.
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