Prevalence of Contralateral Hearing Aid Use in Adults with Cochlear Implants

• Autor(a) principal: Yamaguchi,Cintia Tizue
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Goffi-Gomez,Maria Valeria Schmidt
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1809-48642013000400370
• topic: cochlear implantation; deafness; hearing aids; speech perception

Introduction  The exclusive use of a cochlear implant (CI) in one ear allows patients to effectively hear speech in a quiet environment. However, in environments with competing noise, the processing of multiple sounds becomes complex. In an attempt to promote binaural hearing in a noninvasive manner, the use of a hearing aid in the nonimplanted ear is suggested for patients with a unilateral CI. Aims  To identify the prevalence of hearing aid use in the contralateral ear in adults who already have a CI; to determine the reasons why some patients do not use contralateral hearing aids (CHAs); and to analyze the effects of residual hearing in CHA users. Materials and Methods  This is a clinical study in 82 adult patients with CI implants who responded to a questionnaire designed to determine current use of CHA. Results  In our patient sample, 70 CHA nonusers were identified. The prevalence of CHA users was determined to be 12% with a 95% confidence interval of 11 to 13%. About 58.2% of the CHA nonusers reported a lack of noticeable benefit even after wearing hearing aids, and 23.6% reported not having received the option to use a CHA. CHA users had a pure tone average of 107-dB hearing level, whereas CHA nonusers had a pure tone average of 117-dB hearing level. Conclusion  The prevalence of the use of a CHA is low in our study. We attribute the low use of a CHA to either a lack of residual hearing or to a lack of benefit from the amplification.