Longitudinal trajectories of memory among middle-aged and older people with hearing loss: the influence of cochlear implant use on cognitive functioning.

Introduction: Cochlear implants (CI) are the gold standard intervention for severe to profound hearing loss, a known modifiable risk factor for dementia. However, it remains unknown whether CI use might prevent the age-related cognitive decline. Recent studies are encouraging but are limited, mainly by short follow-up periods and, for ethical reasons, lack of appropriate control groups.

Intra- and Interrater Reliability of CT- versus MRI-Based Cochlear Duct Length Measurement in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Candidates and Its Impact on Personalized Electrode Array Selection.

Background: Radiological high-resolution computed tomography-based evaluation of cochlear implant candidates' cochlear duct length (CDL) has become the method of choice for electrode array selection. The aim of the present study was to evaluate if MRI-based data match CT-based data and if this impacts on electrode array choice.

Methods: Participants were 39 children.

Update on surgical and nonsurgical treatment options for age-related hearing loss.

Background: Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is one of the most common chronic conditions that impacts on everyday life far beyonds speech understanding. Chronic hearing loss has been associated with social isolation, depression, and cognitive decline. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are recommended.

Third-party disability in cochlear implant users.

Objective: To date, auditory rehabilitation mainly focuses on the person with hearing impairment (PHI). This study aimed to analyse the burden of hearing loss on significant others (SOs), and to explore the impact of contextual and mediating psychosocial co-factors and auditory rehabilitation by cochlear implantation (CI).

Design And Study Sample: Third-party disability (SOS-HEAR) and quality of life (Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire) were evaluated in 41 PHI scheduled for CI surgery and their close partners pre- and 6-month post-implantation.

Can cochlear implantation prevent cognitive decline in the long-term follow-up?

Cognitive function and hearing are known to both decline in older adults. As hearing loss is proposed to be one modifiable risk factor for dementia, the impact of auditory rehabilitation on cognitive decline has been gaining increasing attention. Despite a large number of studies, long-term data are still rare.

Poor Performer: A Distinct Entity in Cochlear Implant Users?

Introduction: Several factors are known to influence speech perception in cochlear implant (CI) users. To date, the underlying mechanisms have not yet been fully clarified. Although many CI users achieve a high level of speech perception, a small percentage of patients does not or only slightly benefit from the CI (poor performer, PP).

Cognition and Cognitive Reserve in Cochlear Implant Recipients.

At present, dementia is a hot topic. Hearing loss is considered to be a modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline. The underlying mechanism remains unclear and might be mediated by socioeconomic and psychosocial factors.

[Teletherapy after cochlear implantation during the COVID-19 pandemic].

Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalization in healthcare grew rapidly. Auditory training after cochlear implantation usually takes place face-to-face but social distancing interferes with this therapeutic approach.

Materials And Methods: In follow-up treatment, 42 adult cochlear implant (CI) users aged 53.

[How the brain perceives the world in old age with all senses].

Background: Aging is a multidimensional process that may lead to physical, psychological and social changes. This is predominantly due to a decline of sensory functions and their central processing.

Material And Methods: Selective literature search in Medline and the Cochrane Library.

Sensory Dysfunction in Old Age.

Background: The senses serve as the crucial interface between the individual and the environment. They are subject to aging and disease processes.

Methods: This review is based on pertinent publications retrieved by a selective search in the Medline and Cochrane Library databases.

Impact of Cochlear Implantation on Neurocognitive Subdomains in Adult Cochlear Implant Recipients.

Introduction: Age-related hearing loss affects about one-third of the population worldwide. Studies suggest that hearing loss may be linked to cognitive decline and auditory rehabilitation may improve cognitive functions. So far, the data are limited, and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood.

Impact of Hearing Loss on Geriatric Assessment.

Background: Due to the aging society, the incidence of age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is strongly increasing. Hearing loss has a high impact on various aspects of life and may lead to social isolation, depression, loss of gain control, frailty and even mental decline. Comorbidity of cognitive and sensory impairment is not rare.

Cochlear Implantation.

Background: Hearing impairment that is too severe to be adequately treated with conventional hearing aids can lead, in children, to severe developmental disturbances of hearing and language, and, in adults, to communicative and social deprivation. Recent advances in medical device technology and in microsurgical techniques have led to an expansion of the indications for cochlear implantation (CI) for adults with progressive hearing loss in older age, and to a restructuring of the process of care for these patients in Germany.

Methods: This review is based on pertinent publications retrieved by a selective search in PubMed, as well as on the CI guidelines and CI "white book" of the German Society of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.

Nonauditory Functions in Low-performing Adult Cochlear Implant Users.

Introduction: Despite substantial benefits of cochlear implantation (CI) there is a high variability in speech recognition, the reasons for which are not fully understood. Especially the group of low-performing CI users is under-researched. Because of limited perceptual quality, top-down mechanisms play an important role in decoding the speech signal transmitted by the CI.

Aetiology of Ludwig van Beethoven's hearing impairment: hypotheses over the past 100 years - A systematic review.

Objectives: Even 250 years after Beethoven's birth, the irrevocable cause of his hearing impairment remains unclear despite multiple publications by different professional groups. This study aimed to analyse the development of the most likely aetiologies during the last 100 years by a systematic review of the relevant medical literature.

Methods: A systematic review of medical literature in PubMed, PubMed Central, and Web of Science for the period 1920-2020 was conducted.

Spatial Hearing by Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users With Temporal Fine-Structure Processing.

Several studies have demonstrated the advantages of the bilateral vs. unilateral cochlear implantation in listeners with bilateral severe to profound hearing loss. However, it remains unclear to what extent bilaterally implanted listeners have access to binaural cues, e.

Benefits of Cochlear Implantation in Middle-Aged and Older Adults.

Introduction: Nowadays cochlear implantation (CI) is the treatment of choice in adults in case conventional hearing devices fail. Besides speech perception, an improvement in quality of life and in cognitive performance has been reported. Thereby, the study focused on the impact of age.

Interactive Evaluation of a Music Preprocessing Scheme for Cochlear Implants Based on Spectral Complexity Reduction.

Music is difficult to access for the majority of CI users as the reduced dynamic range and poor spectral resolution in cochlear implants (CI), amongst others constraints, severely impair their auditory perception. The reduction of spectral complexity is therefore a promising means to facilitate music enjoyment for CI listeners. We evaluate a spectral complexity reduction method for music signals based on principal component analysis that enforces spectral sparsity, emphasizes the melody contour and attenuates interfering accompanying voices.

A new adhesive bone conduction hearing system effectively treats conductive hearing loss in children.

Objectives: Bone conduction hearing devices integrated in softbands (BCDSs) are frequently not well accepted by children with conductive hearing loss due to pressure on the head, sweating, or cosmetic stigma. A non-surgical hearing system (ADHEAR) uses a new bone conduction concept consisting of an audio processor connected to an adhesive adapter fixed behind the ear. This study is the first to evaluate the audiological and clinical outcome of this novel system, comparing it with conventional BCDSs in a short- and mid-term follow-up in children under 10 years of age.

Prognostic factors regarding the hearing outcome in severe to profound sudden sensorineural hearing loss treated by tympanotomy and sealing of labyrinthine windows after ineffective systemic corticosteroid application.

Purpose: Tympanotomy and sealing of labyrinthine membranes has become in some centers used to treat severe to profound sudden sensorineural hearing loss refractory to conservative treatment. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine which preoperative factors influence the likelihood of postoperative recovery according to different audiological assessment criteria.

Methods: The mean final hearing threshold, the hearing improvement, the probability of a complete recovery according to two different classifications, and probability of a significant recovery of 136 adult subjects were studied by univariate and multivariate analyses.

Can cochlear implantation improve neurocognition in the aging population?

Introduction: The relationship between cognition and the ability to hear is well known. Due to changes in demographics, the number of people with sensorineural hearing loss and cognitive impairment is increasing. The aim of this study was to identify the impact of hearing rehabilitation via cochlear implantation on cognitive decline among the aging population.

[Need of analgetics in children aged 2-12 years after tonsil surgery].

Objective: Tonsil surgery is one of the most painful operations in childhood. The Children's and Infants' Postoperative Pain Scale (CHIPPS), the Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R) and the little-known German version of the parents' postoperative pain measure (PPPM-D) are age-appropriate measures. Children undergoing intracapsular tonsillectomy (TO) or extracapsular tonsillectomy (TE) received the non-opioids ibuprofen (IBU) and paracetamol (PCM) on a "as needed"-basis requested by parents.

Transmastoid implantability of an active transcutaneous bone conduction implant in adults with regard to the underlying pathology: a radiological simulation study.

Objectives: To compare the feasibility of transmastoid implantation of an active transcutaneous bone conduction device (BCD) in the most important pathologies of the temporal bone and the impact of implant lifts in adulthood.

Methods: First, clinical predominant pathologies for implantation of this BCD were evaluated by a literature review. Then, high-resolution CT of 240 temporal bones with neuro-otologic diseases (NOD), chronic otitis media (COM), or cholesteatoma, respectively, were investigated regarding their implantability, using a radiological simulation program.