Abstract
Study Design: A prospective experimental trial was undertaken on a group of 10 postlingually deafened adults who are experienced CI users. Objectives/Hypothesis: To investigate whether a contralateral routing of signal (CROS) microphone combined with a unilateral cochlear implant (CI) results in hearing improvement after a prolonged trial period. Methods: Participants completed audiometric testing and validated questionnaires with their unilateral CI alone, followed by addition of a CROS microphone (CI-CROS). This was worn daily for the 2-week trial, after which hearing performance was reevaluated using the same measures. Objective tests included AzBio sentences in quiet and noise and consonant- vowel nucleus-consonant (CNC) words. Subjective measures included the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB); Speech, Spatial, Qualities of Hearing Index (SSQ); Hearing Implant Sound Quality Index; an institutional questionnaire; and a daily log sheet. Results: There is statistically significant enhanced speech discrimination with the CI-CROS when speech is presented on the CROS side. However, scores are markedly diminished when background noise is introduced, particularly to the CROS side. Subjective results indicate lower satisfaction scores for the global and ease of communication subdomains of the APHAB with the CI-CROS, but increased scores on the spatial hearing subdomain of the SSQ (P
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 197-202 |
Journal | The Laryngoscope |
Volume | 125 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |