Early Speech Perception Test Outcome in Children with Severe Sensorineural Hearing Loss with Unilateral Cochlear Implants Alone versus Bimodal Stimulation

Abstract

Bilateral stimulation of the auditory system has clear advantages over unilateral hearing. Hearing-impaired children are, therefore, generally fitted with hearing aids in both ears so that they can have the benefits of binaural hearing. Children who use acochlear implant in one ear and no acoustic stimulation in the opposite ear are at a definite disadvantage. This study was undertaken to determine the advantages of bimodal stimulation in pediatric population especially in terms of speech recognition. This study comprised of 30 children between 3 and 6 years of age with profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss with cochlear implant in one ear and fitted with digital hearing aid in non-implanted ear. Speech recognition performance was compared in unilateral cochlear implant only and with bimodal hearing stimulation in the same set of children. A statistically significant difference was found between speech reception scores in children with a unilateral cochlear implant only and those with a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the non implanted ear in quiet surroundings. It is suggested that the use of bimodal fitting be considered as an effective management method to obtain the advantage of binaural hearing in children who undergo unilateral cochlear implantation.

Keywords: Auditory deprivation; Bimodal Stimulation; Binaural hearing; Cochlear implantee; Early Speech Perception Test.

Conflict of interest statement

Dr Ajith Nilakantan, Dr Poonam Raj, Dr Sachin Saini, Dr Ruchika Mittal declares that they have no conflict of interest.All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Figures

Fig. 1

Duration of bimodal stimulation

Fig. 2

Picture card for pattern perception test

Fig. 3

Picture card of trisyllabic subset for Word Identification Test

Fig. 4

Picture card of bisyllabic subset for Word Identification Test

Fig. 5

Picture card of monosyllabic subset for Word Identification Test

Fig. 6

a and b Participants undergoing Early Speech Perception Test