Abstract
Objectives: To set criteria for contralateral hearing aid (HA) usage that can be applied to pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients. To determine whether pediatric CI recipients using a contralateral hearing aid (CI + HA) have improved speech perception compared to those without an HA.
Methods: Retrospective analysis of 90 pediatric CI recipients. Predicted monosyllabic speech recognition scores were derived from aided articulation index (AI) scores (Pavlovic, 1991). Patients were divided into two groups: HA not recommended (AI = 0%–13%) and HA recommended (AI = 14% and greater). Pre-implant aided benefit (unaided minus aided thresholds) was evaluated. Postoperative speech perception was evaluated for the HA-recommended group. Speech perception scores were categorized using the system described by Geers (1994). This system ranks skills on a scale of 0–6, where 0 reflects no detection of speech and 6 reflects open set speech recognition greater than 50%. Scores for those wearing CI + HA were compared to those using CI only.
Results: The mean aided benefit (contralateral ear) for the recommended group was 43.57 dB versus 27.07 dB for the not-recommended group (P = 0.0057). The mean category score for the CI only group was 4.10 versus 5.12 for the CI + HA group (P = 0.1071).
Conclusions: The protocol outlined for selecting which CI recipients should use a contralateral HA is statistically valid and universally applicable and establishes criteria where none currently exist. Analysis suggested that appropriately selected patients do benefit from HA usage in the ear opposite a CI but failed to show statistical significance secondary to small sample size in the CI + HA group.