[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.

Factors to Describe the Outcome Characteristics of a CI Recipient.

In cochlear implant (CI) treatment, there is a large variability in outcome. The aim of our study was to identify the independent audiometric measures that are most directly relevant for describing this variability in outcome characteristics of CI recipients. An extended audiometric test battery was used with selected adult patients in order to characterize the full range of CI outcomes.

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.

Investigation of Maximum Monosyllabic Word Recognition as a Predictor of Speech Understanding with Cochlear Implant.

The cochlear implant (CI) is an established treatment option for patients with inadequate speech understanding and insufficient aided scores. Nevertheless, reliable predictive models and specific therapy goals regarding achievable speech understanding are still lacking. In this retrospective study, 601 cases of CI fittings between 2005 and 2021 at the University Medical Center Freiburg were analyzed.

Tone Decay Reconsidered: Preliminary Results of a Prospective Study in Hearing-Aid Users with Moderate to Severe Hearing Loss.

Among hearing aid (HA) users, there is a considerable variability in word recognition scores (WRSs). This variability is most pronounced among individuals with moderately severe to severe hearing loss. The variability cannot be adequately explained by factors such as pure-tone audiogram, audiogram type or age.

The Effects of Stimulus Repetition Rate on Electrically Evoked Auditory Brainstem Potentials in Postlingually Deafened Adult Cochlear Implant Recipients.

By using outcome prediction scores, it is possible to distinguish between good and poor performers with cochlear implants (CI) after CI implantation. The reasons for poor performance, despite good basic conditions, can be manifold. On the one hand, the postoperative fitting may be inadequate; on the other, neurophysiological disease processes may impair speech understanding with a CI.

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.

Prediction of postoperative speech comprehension with the transcutaneous partially implantable bone conduction hearing system Osia®.

Background: The active transcutaneous, partially implantable osseointegrated bone conduction system Cochlear™ Osia® (Cochlear, Sydney, Australia) has been approved for use in German-speaking countries since April 2021. The Osia is indicated for patients either having conductive (CHL) or mixed hearing loss (MHL) with an average bone conduction (BC) hearing loss of 55 dB HL or less, or having single-sided deafness (SSD).

Objectives: The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the prediction of postoperative speech recognition with Osia® and to evaluate the speech recognition of patients with MHL and in particular an aided dynamic range of less than 30 dB with Osia®.

Evaluative audiometry after cochlear implant provision.

Background: 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 a high variability, which has not been sufficiently explained so far.

[Prediction of speech understanding with the transcutaneous partially implantable bone conduction hearing system Osia®. German Version].

Background: The active transcutaneous, partially implantable osseointegrated bone conduction system Cochlear™ Osia® (Cochlear, Sydney, Australia) has been approved for use in German-speaking countries since April 2021. The Osia is indicated for patients with conductive (CHL) or mixed hearing loss (MHL) with an average bone conduction (BC) hearing loss of 55 dB or less, or with single-sided deafness (SSD).

Objectives: The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the prediction of postoperative speech recognition with Osia and to evaluate the speech recognition of patients with MHL and an aided dynamic range of less than 30 dB with Osia.

[Evaluative audiometry after cochlear implant provision. German Version].

Background: 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 a high variability, which has not been sufficiently explained so far.

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.

[Validation of a predictive model for speech discrimination after cochlear implant 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.

Speech comprehension in noise-considerations for ecologically valid assessment of communication skills ability with cochlear implants.

Background: Nowadays, cochlear implant (CI) patients mostly show good to very good speech comprehension in quiet, but there are known problems with communication in everyday noisy situations. There is thus a need for ecologically valid measurements of speech comprehension in real-life listening situations for hearing-impaired patients. The additional methodological effort must be balanced with clinical human and spatial resources.

[Speech comprehension in noise-considerations for ecologically valid assessment of communication skills ability with cochlear implants. German version].

Background: Nowadays, cochlear implant (CI) patients mostly show good to very good speech comprehension in quiet, but there are known problems with communication in everyday noisy situations. There is thus a need for ecologically valid measurements of speech comprehension in real-life listening situations for hearing-impaired patients. The additional methodological effort must be balanced with clinical human and spatial resources.

Age-Related Decline of Speech Perception.

Hearing loss is one of the most common disorders worldwide. It affects communicative abilities in all age groups. However, it is well known that elderly people suffer more frequently from hearing loss.

Ecological Momentary Assessment to Obtain Signal Processing Technology Preference in Cochlear Implant Users.

Background: To assess the performance of cochlear implant users, speech comprehension benefits are generally measured in controlled sound room environments of the laboratory. For field-based assessment of preference, questionnaires are generally used. Since questionnaires are typically administered at the end of an experimental period, they can be inaccurate due to retrospective recall.

Speech Perception in Bilateral Hearing Aid Users With Different Grades of Asymmetric Hearing Loss.

Hearing loss is associated with decreased speech perception as well as with changes in the auditory pathway. The effects of those changes on binaural speech perception with hearing aids are not yet fully understood. To provide further evidence on the functional changes of the auditory pathway, several speech perception tests (unilateral and bilateral, aided and unaided, in quiet, and in noise) were conducted in a population of 370 bilateral hearing aid users covering the entire range of the World Health Organization's most recent classification of hearing loss.

Speech comprehension across multiple CI processor generations: Scene dependent signal processing.

Objectives: In clinical practice, characterization of speech comprehension for cochlear implant (CI) patients is typically administered by a set of suprathreshold measurements in quiet and in noise. This study investigates speech comprehension of the three most recent cochlear implant sound processors; CP810, CP910, and CP1000 (Cochlear Limited). To compare sound processor performance across generations and input dynamic range changes, the state-of-the art signal processing technologies available in each sound processor were enabled.

Evaluation of a synthetic version of the digits-in-noise test and its characteristics in CI recipients.

Objective: The goal of this study was the evaluation of a synthetic version of the Digits-in-Noise (DiN) in participants with normal hearing. Additionally, the basis characteristics of the DiN in CI recipients were investigated.

Design And Study Sample: Twenty participants with normal hearing and 21 CI recipients with a Nucleus®-System ran two to three adaptive and up to five fixed measurements.

Improved binaural speech reception thresholds through small symmetrical separation of speech and noise.

Speech perception in noise is challenging and is improved by binaural hearing. Since signal processing of assistive hearing devices often modifies or masks the peripheral binaural head-shadow or better-ear effects, central binaural processing should be measured separately. In a prospective study, 10 listeners with normal hearing were tested with the German matrix sentence test in a set-up with two loudspeakers located at opposite angles in the horizontal plane with respect to S0N0.

Cochlear Implantation in Candidates With Moderate-to-Severe Hearing Loss and Poor Speech Perception.

Objectives/hypothesis: To determine the improvement in word recognition score (WRS ) after cochlear implant (CI) surgery in hearing aid (HA) users with preoperative hearing threshold ≤80 dB HL and inadequate speech recognition scores with HA. Secondarily, to identify predictive factors for WRS with a CI (WRS [CI]) 6 months after surgery, derived from the standard German CI preoperative assessment.

Study Design: Retrospective chart review.

Speech recognition with hearing aids for 10 standard audiograms : English version.

Background: Improvement of speech perception in quiet is an important goal of hearing aid provision. In practice, results are highly variable. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between type and extent of hearing loss (audiogram type), maximum word recognition score, and aided speech perception.

[Speech recognition with hearing aids for 10 standard audiograms].

Background: Improvement of speech perception in quiet is an important goal of hearing aid provision. In practice, results are highly variable. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between type and extent of hearing loss (audiogram type), maximum word recognition score, and aided speech perception.