Sustained reduction of tinnitus several years after sequential cochlear implantation

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographics in the cohort of patients provided with sequential bilateral CIs due to tinnitus annoyance (N = 20).

Patient ID	Sex	Age at CI-1 (years)	Inter-implant interval (years)	Implant model CI-1	Implant model CI-2
1	F	53.6	19.5	CI22	CI24M
2	F	25.1	11.6	CI-24M	CI24RE(CA)
3	F	23.0	9.3	Combi40+	CONCERTO
4	F	54.9	6.6	Combi40+	SONATA ti100
5	F	72.4	6.9	CI24RE(CA)	CI24RE(CA)
6	F	44.6	2.4	HiRes 90 K	HiRes 90 K
7	F	58.2	5.5	PULSAR ci100	CONCERTO
8	F	63.1	0.9	PULSAR ci100	SONATA ti100
9	F	72.5	3.1	PULSAR ci100	SONATA ti100
10	M	45.0	3.7	SONATA ti100	CONCERTO
11	F	36.6	4.8	HiRes 90 K	HiRes 90 K
12	M	57.5	4.0	HiRes 90 K	HiRes 90 K
13	F	66.0	1.9	CI24RE(CA)	CI512
14	F	48.2	3.2	SONATA ti100	CONCERTO
15	M	51.4	3.1	SONATA ti100	CONCERTO
16	F	25.4	2.9	SONATA ti100	CONCERTO
17	F	38.1	2.3	HiRes 90 K	HiRes 90 K
18	M	37.2	2.5	HiRes 90 K	HiRes 90 K
19	F	39.7	2.2	SONATA ti100	CONCERTO
20	F	35.3	2.0	CI24RE(CA)	CI512

Note. CI, cochlear implant; ID, identification; M, male; F, female. HiRes90K is an implant manufactured by Advanced Bionics. Combi 40+, PULSAR ci100, SONATA ti100 and CONCERTO are implants manufactured by Med-El. CI22, CI24M, CI24RE(CA) and CI512 are implants in the Nucleus series manufactured by Cochlear.

Figure 1. Flowchart demonstrating the study’s process.

Table 2. Individual and group results for THI total, VAS Loudness, VAS Annoyance, SRQ Annoyance and SRQ CI-2 effect at Pre, Post1 and Post2 time-points (N = 20).

Patient ID	THI Total			VAS Loudness			VAS Annoyance			SRQ Annoyance			SRQ CI-2 effect
	Pre	Post1	Post2	Pre	Post1	Post2	Pre	Post1	Post2	‘Pre’	Post1	Post2	Post1	Post2
1	78**	12	0	8	1	–	8	1	–	3	1	1	1	1
2	–	8	18	–	–	5	–	–	3	3	2	2	1	2
3	90**	44	–	7	3	–	7	2	–	3	2	–	1	–
4	–	24	18	–	6	7	–	6	6	3	2	2	1	1
5	44	0	0	7	4	1	6	3	1	2	1	1	1	1
6	–	82**	76	–	–	7	–	–	9	3	3	3	2	3
7	52	16	18	7	7	5	8	5	4	3	2	2	2	1
8	–	48	48	–	–	9	–	–	9	3	3	3	2	2
9	18	50	34	–	–	–	–	–	–	2	2	2	2	2
10	66*	38	14	6	9	7	7	7	5	3	2	2	1	1
11	78**	48	18	7	5	5	7	5	3	3	2	2	1	1
12	50	52	24	4	5	4	5	6	3	3	2	1	1	1
13	90**	26	24	7	4	8	7	5	5	3	2	2	1	1
14	–	4	4	–	–	8	–	–	8	2	1	1	1	1
15	–	86**	46	–	–	5	–	–	5	3	2	2	2	1
16	60*	14	56	–	–	6	–	–	6	3	1	2	1	1
17	70*	14	–	8	5	–	9	2	–	3	1	–	1	–
18	72*	76**	38	5	7	8	6	9	4	3	3	2	3	1
19	54	20	8	9	5	1	9	3	1	3	2	1	3	1
20	74*	0	10	9	1	6	9	1	2	3	1	1	1	1
Median	63*	23	18	7	5	5	7	5	3	3	2	2	1	1
Range	18–90	0–76	0–56	4–9	1–9	1–8	5–9	1–9	1–8	2–3	1–3	1–3	1–3	1–3
Mean	61.3	29.3	20.3	6.8	5.4	5.0	7.1	4.9	3.4	2.8	2.0	1.8	1.5	1.3
SD	19.4	23.5	16.3	1.8	2.4	2.6	1.5	2.5	2.2	0.4	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.6

THI: Tinnitus Handicap Inventory; VAS: Visual Analog Scale; SRQ: Self-Report Questionnaire. SRQ Annoyance was represented by 1 (no annoyance), 2 (moderate annoyance), and 3 (considerable distress); SRQ CI-2 effect was represented by 1 (reduced tinnitus handicap), 2 (no effect on tinnitus), and 3 (increased tinnitus). Em dash means no data obtained. *Severe handicap (58–76); **Catastrophic handicap (78–100). Medians, means, ranges and SDs are calculated from the number of responses included in the analyses (n = 9 for the VAS-L and VAS-A; n = 12 for the THI and n = 18 for the SRQ).

Figure 2. The Pre, Post1 and Post2 THI-scores for all 20 participants. The colours of the lines show the self-reported CI-2 effect (SRQ-score) on tinnitus from Post1 to Post2; the red line represents the participant who experienced increased tinnitus, the blue lines represent those who experienced no effect following CI-2 implantation and the green lines represent those who experienced a reduction in their tinnitus handicap after the CI-2 implantation. The number to the right of each line represents the patient identification, presented in Table 2.

Figure 3. Box-and-whisker plots showing the THI-, VAS-A- and VAS-L-scores at the Pre, Post1 and Post2 time-points for the participants with complete THI (n = 12), VAS-A (n = 9), and VAS-L (n = 9) assessments throughout the study period. One asterisk (*) indicates a statistically significant difference, with p < 0.05. The means are marked with x in the same plots for each assessment (i.e., Pre, Post1 and Post2).