The Effects of Preoperative Audiovisual Speech Perception on the Audiologic Outcomes of Cochlear Implantation in Patients with Postlingual Deafness

Abstract

Introduction: Patients with postlingual deafness usually depend on visual information for communication, and their lipreading ability could influence cochlear implantation (CI) outcomes. However, it is unclear whether preoperative visual dependency in postlingual deafness positively or negatively affects auditory rehabilitation after CI. Herein, we investigated the influence of preoperative audiovisual per­ception on CI outcomes. Method: In this retrospective case-comparison study, 118 patients with postlingual deafness who underwent unilateral CI were enrolled. Evaluation of speech perception was performed under both audiovisual (AV) and audio-only (AO) conditions before and after CI. Before CI, the speech perception test was performed under hearing aid (HA)-assisted conditions. After CI, the speech perception test was performed under the CI-only condition. Only patients with a 10% or less preoperative AO speech perception score were included. Results: Multivariable regression analysis showed that age, gender, residual hearing, operation side, education level, and HA usage were not correlated with either postoperative AV (pAV) or AO (pAO) speech perception. However, duration of deafness showed a significant negative correlation with both pAO (p = 0.003) and pAV (p = 0.015) speech perceptions. Notably, the preoperative AV speech perception score was not correlated with pAO speech perception (R² = 0.00134, p = 0.693) but was positively associated with pAV speech perception (R² = 0.0731, p = 0.003). Conclusion: Preoperative dependency on audiovisual information may positively influence pAV speech perception in patients with postlingual deafness.