[Disproportionately high loss in speech intelligibility].

Background: The influence of hearing impairment on everyday hearing can be estimated by speech audiometry. There is a great deal of variability in the dependence of word recognition scores on pure-tone hearing loss.

Materials And Methods: A large clinical database of 28,261 records with complete tone and speech audiometry data was analyzed.

Impact of unilateral vs. bilateral evaluation on cochlear implant candidacy.

Background: The indication criteria for cochlear implantation differ considerably across regions.

Objectives: To estimate the effects of different candidacy criteria on the number of cochlear implant (CI) candidates.

Methods: We analysed a very large clinical audiological database comprising pure-tone thresholds and speech-audiometric data in order to identify CI candidates on the basis of different audiometric candidacy criteria.

Evolving a Model for Cochlear Implant Outcome.

Background: Cochlear implantation is an efficient treatment for postlingually deafened adults who do not benefit sufficiently from acoustic amplification. Implantation is indicated when it can be foreseen that speech recognition with a cochlear implant (CI) is superior to that with a hearing aid. Especially for subjects with residual speech recognition, it is desirable to predict CI outcome on the basis of preoperative audiological tests.

Validation of a predictive model for speech discrimination after cochlear impIant provision.

Background: If sufficient speech discrimination is no longer achieved with conventional hearing systems, an audiological indication for a cochlear implant (CI) is given. However, there are no established target criteria for CI aftercare with regard to the level of speech comprehension to be achieved. The aim of this study is to validate an existing predictive model for speech comprehension after CI provision.