Beyond hearing: the impact of Cochlear implantation on the quality of life of users and their communication partners after 1 year.

Objective: To assess the impact of cochlear implantation (CI) and speech perception outcomes on the quality of life (QoL) of adult CI users and their communication partners (CP) one-year post-implantation.

Design: This research is part of a prospective multicenter study in The Netherlands, called SMILE (Societal Merit of Intervention for hearing Loss Evaluation).

Study Sample: Eighty adult CI users completed speech perception testing and the Nijmegen Cochear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ).

Neuroanatomical anomalies due to a defect in the FGF3 gene, associated with the Labyrinthine Aplasia, Microtia and Microdontia syndrome: insights from the placement of auditory brainstem implants in two siblings.

Here, we describe two congenitally deaf male siblings with the same compound heterozygotic, likely pathogenic mutations in the FGF3 gene, associated with the labyrinthine aplasia, microtia and microdontia (LAMM) syndrome. Both children had bilateral cochleovestibular aplasia, precluding cochlear implantation. The elder brother received an auditory brainstem implant (ABI) with very limited auditory responses.

Diagnostic value of preoperative measures in selecting post-lingually deafened candidates for cochlear implantation - a different approach.

Objectives: We examined which preoperative diagnostic measure is most suited to serve as a selection criterion to determine adult cochlear implantation (CI) candidacy.

Design: Preoperative diagnostic measures included pure tone audiometry (PTA; 0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz), speech perception tests (SPT) unaided with headphones and with best-aided hearing aids (in quiet and in noise).

Full-array channel discrimination in cochlear implants: validation and clinical application.

Objective: We sought to validate our proposed tool for estimating channel discrimination of cochlear implant (CI) users along the full electrode array and to assess associations between place-pitch discrimination and speech perception.

Design: In two tests, participants identified one stimulus (probe) as the odd-one-out compared with two reference stimuli. Probe stimuli were evoked using dual electrode stimulation characterised by the current steering coefficient α.

[Hearing without ears].

An Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI) is a technique developed for patients with severe hearing loss. The ABI consists of a microphone and speech processor located on the scalp, which is connected to a transmitting and receiving coil and electrode on the brain stem placed in the skull. Eligible for an ABI are adults with cochlea and acoustic nerve damage due to neurofibromatosis type 2, and children with congenital malformation or aplasia, cochlear trauma or cochlear ossification after meningitis.

Selection Criteria for Cochlear Implantation in the United Kingdom and Flanders: Toward a Less Restrictive Standard.

Objectives: The impact of the newly introduced cochlear implantation criteria of the United Kingdom and Flanders (Dutch speaking part of Belgium) was examined in the patient population of a tertiary referral center in the Netherlands. We compared the patients who would be included/excluded under the new versus old criteria in relation to the actual improvement in speech understanding after implantation in our center. We also performed a sensitivity analysis to examine the effectiveness of the different preoperative assessment approaches used in the United Kingdom and Flanders.

Pediatric Auditory Brainstem Implant Users Compared With Cochlear Implant Users With Additional Disabilities.

Objectives: To evaluate long-term language development in children with prelingual deafness who received auditory brainstem implants (ABIs) compared with children who received cochlear implants (CIs) at the same hospital. Additional non-auditory disabilities were taken into account.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Evidence-Based Inclusion Criteria for Cochlear Implantation in Patients With Postlingual Deafness.

Objectives: This study determined the relationship between preoperative phoneme and word scores and the gain in speech perception after cochlear implantation in a large cohort of patients. The authors aimed to define evidence-based selection criteria for cochlear implantations in adults with postlingual deafness.

Design: This retrospective study included 364 adults with postlingual deafness who received a cochlear implant between 2000 and 2013 at the Leiden University Medical Center.

Intelligibility of the Patient's Speech Predicts the Likelihood of Cochlear Implant Success in Prelingually Deaf Adults.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the validity and clinical applicability of intelligibility of the patient's own speech, measured via a Vowel Identification Test (VOW), as a predictor of speech perception for prelingually deafened adults after 1 year of cochlear implant use. Specifically, the objective was to investigate the probability that a prelingually deaf patient, given a VOW score above (or below) a chosen cutoff point, reaches a postimplant speech perception score above (or below) a critical value. High predictive values for VOW could support preimplant counseling and implant candidacy decisions in individual patients.

Effects of pulse width, pulse rate and paired electrode stimulation on psychophysical measures of dynamic range and speech recognition in cochlear implants.

Objectives: In this article results are described of a study on the effects of stimulation rate (PR), pulse duration (PW), and paired pulsatile stimulation (PPS) versus continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) on speech perception and psychophysical loudness measures.

Methods: During 3 nonconsecutive days, 27 postlingually deafened patients, implanted with either a CII or a HiRes90K with a HiFocus electrode array, were fitted with nine 12-channel strategies after a Latin-square design, systematically investigating the effect of stimulation rate (774-3868 pps/channel), PW (11-43 µsec/phase), and PPS versus CIS. Speech perception was measured in phonemes using open-set monosyllabic words.

Cochlear reimplantation with same device: surgical and audiologic results.

Objectives/hypothesis: To study to what extent it is possible to achieve identical insertion depths and to maintain the same performance after cochlear reimplantation.

Study Design: Outcome research on a retrospective case series in a tertiary university referral center.

Methods: Data were collected for 12 adults and three children who underwent reimplantation during the last 3 years with a new HiRes90K device with HiFocus 1J electrode owing to failure of the feed-through seal.

Speech intelligibility as a predictor of cochlear implant outcome in prelingually deafened adults.

Objectives: Among adult patients with prelingual deafness, interindividual variability in speech perception outcome after cochlear implantation is generally large. It was hypothesized that the intelligibility of the patient's own speech may be predictive of speech perception with a cochlear implant. The objectives were (1) to provide a validation of a new test battery as a measurement tool for intelligibility using a group of prelingually deafened patients; (2) to investigate the validity of the test battery as a predictor of postimplant speech perception, based on preliminary data with a cochlear implant from a subgroup of patients; and (3) to investigate the validity of the test battery as a predictor of postimplant health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for the same subgroup of patients.