Feasibility of Using Electrocochleography for Objective Estimation of Electro-Acoustic Interactions in Cochlear Implant Recipients with Residual Hearing.

Kanthaiah Koka,Leonid M Litvak

doi:10.3389/fnins.2017.00337

Abstract

Although cochlear implants (CI) traditionally have been used to treat individuals with bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss, a recent trend is to implant individuals with residual low-frequency hearing. Patients who retain some residual acoustic hearing after surgery often can benefit from electro-acoustic stimulation (EAS) technologies, which combine conventional acoustic amplification with electrical stimulation. However, interactions between acoustic and electrical stimulation may affect outcomes adversely and are time-consuming and difficult to assess behaviorally. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using the Advanced Bionics HiRes90K Advantage implant electronics and HiFocus Mid Scala/1j electrode to measure electrocochleography (ECochG) responses in the presence of electrical stimulation to provide an objective estimate of peripheral physiologic EAS interactions. In general, electrical stimulation reduced ECochG response amplitudes to acoustic stimulation. The degree of peripheral EAS interaction varied as a function of acoustic pure tone frequency and the intra-cochlear location of the electrically stimulated electrode. Further development of this technique may serve to guide and optimize clinical EAS system fittings in the future.

Highlights

Because of advances in electrode array technology and surgical technique, patients with lowfrequency residual acoustic hearing could benefit from cochlear implants (CI) (Balkany et al, 2006; Fraysse et al, 2006)
This study explored the feasibility of using ECochG to assess electro-acoustic interactions objectively in implanted subjects with residual hearing in the presence of electrical stimulation
ECochG responses were recorded for different electrical stimulation rates and Derived acoustic responses were estimated based on the technique described in Methods for Experiment 1

Summary

Introduction

Because of advances in electrode array technology and surgical technique, patients with lowfrequency residual acoustic hearing could benefit from cochlear implants (CI) (Balkany et al, 2006; Fraysse et al, 2006). Some of these individuals lose their residual hearing completely after implant surgery, others can experience partial or full retention of their acoustic hearing (Radeloff et al, 2012; Dalbert et al, 2015). Subjects with residual hearing often can benefit from electroacoustic stimulation (EAS) technologies, which combine conventional acoustic amplification with electrical stimulation (Von Ilberg et al, 1999; Turner et al, 2008).

Methods

Results

Conclusion