Evaluative audiometry after cochlear implant provision. German Version

Abstract

One of the main treatment goals in cochlear implant (CI) patients is to improve speech perception. One of the target parameters is speech intelligibility in quiet. However, treatment results show ahigh variability, which has not been sufficiently explained so far. The aim of this noninterventional retrospective study was to elucidate this variability using aselected population of patients in whom etiology was not expected to have anegative impact on postoperative speech intelligibility. Audiometric findings of the CI follow-up of 28adult patients after 6months of CI experience were evaluated. These were related to the preoperative audiometric examination and evaluated with respect to arecently published predictive model for the postoperative monosyllabic score. Inclusion of postoperative categorical loudness scaling and hearing loss for Freiburg numbers in the model explained 55% of the variability in fitting outcomes with respect to monosyllabic comprehension. The results of this study suggest that much of the cause of variability in fitting outcomes can be captured by systematic postoperative audiometric checks. Immediate conclusions for CI system adjustments may be drawn from these results. However, the extent to which these are accepted by individual patients and thus lead to an improvement in outcome must be subject to further study, preferably prospective.