Speech recognition in bilaterally cochlear implanted adults in Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

Introduction: The clinical effects of bilateral cochlear implantation (BCI) include binaural summation and better hearing under noise conditions. This study retrospectively examined the utility of BCI compared to unilateral cochlear implantation (CI) in adults.

Patients and methods: We investigated 34 adults who underwent BCI, comparing speech recognition between BCI and first CI under silent and noise conditions. We assessed correlations between speech recognition after first and second CIs, and between the interval from first to second CI surgery and speech recognition of second CI.

Results: Word recognition score (WRS) and sentence recognition score (SRS) were significantly better after BCI than after first CI under conditions of silence and noise. No significant correlation was found between speech recognition after first CI and that after second CI, or between inter-implant interval and speech recognition of second CI for either WRS or SRS.

Conclusions: The utility of BCI in Japanese patients was shown. Patients have no need to be pessimistic about hearing after the second implantation even if speech recognition after the first implantation is poor. A long interval from first CI does not necessarily contraindicate contralateral implantation in adults.

Chinese abstract

引言：双侧耳蜗植入（BCI）的临床效果包括双耳总和以及在噪声条件下更好的听力。这项研究回顾性地检查了对于成人, 与单侧耳蜗植入（CI）相比, BCI的效用。

患者和方法：我们调查了34名接受双侧耳蜗植入的成年人, 比较在静音和噪声条件下BCI第一CI之间的语音识别。我们评估了第一和第二CI之后的语音识别之间, 以及从第一到第二CI手术的间隔期和第二CI的语音识别之间的相关性。

结果：在静音和噪声条件下, 单词识别得分（WRS）和句子识别得分（SRS）在BCI之后显着优于第一CI。在第一CI之后和第二CI之后的语音识别之间, 以及植入间隔期和第二CI的语音识别（WRS或SRS）之间没有发现显着的相关性。

结论：显示BCI对于日本患者的效用。即使第一次植入后的语音识别不良, 患者也不必对第二次植入后的听力持悲观态度。对于成人来说, 第一次耳蜗植入后的长间隔不一定禁止他们的对侧植入。

Keywords:

• Bilateral
• cochlear implant
• adult
• speech recognition
• inter-implant interval

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest associated with this manuscript.