Effect of unilateral cochlear implant use on contralateral electrically evoked auditory brainstem responses to round window membrane electrical stimulation

Abstract

Background

Long-term use of a unilateral cochlear implant (CI) may lead to abnormal development of contralateral auditory pathway.

Objectives

To investigate the usefulness of measuring the electrically evoked auditory brainstem response (eABR) with the electrical stimulation at the round window membrane and the effect of unilateral CI use on the contralateral auditory pathway functions.

Materials and methods

According to duration of unilateral CI use, 45 children with severe or profound sensorineural hearing loss were divided into sCI (≤12 months), lCI (≥24 months) and nCI (no CI use) groups. Intra-operative eABRs evoked by electrical stimulation at the round window membrane were recorded.

Results

The latencies of eIII and eV were significantly longer in lCI group than in sCI group and in nCI group, respectively, but not significantly different between sCI group and nCI group. The eABR thresholds and eIII–eV latency intervals were not significantly different among three groups.

Conclusions and significance

The eABR evoked by the electrical stimulation at the round window membrane is a reliable and effective way of evaluating functions of the auditory pathway in deaf children. Long-term use of a unilateral CI may promote the degenerative process of the contralateral auditory pathway to the level of the brainstem.

Chinese abstract

背景：长期使用单侧人工耳蜗（CI）可能会导致对侧听觉通路的异常发育。

目的：运用圆窗膜上的电刺激, 探讨测量电诱发听觉脑干反应（eABR）的有用性, 并探讨单侧CI使用对对侧听觉通路功能的影响。

材料和方法：根据单侧CI使用的持续时间, 将45名严重感觉神经性听力损失患儿分为sCI（12个月）组、lCI（24个月）和nCI（不使用CI）组。记录圆窗膜上电刺激诱发过程中的eABR。

结果：lCI组的eIII和eV潜伏期分别明显长于sCI组和nCI, 但无显著差异。三组之间的eABR阈值和eIII–eV潜伏期间隔无显著差异。

结论和意义：圆窗膜电刺激诱发的eABR是评估聋儿听觉通路功能的可靠而有效的方法。长期使用单侧CI可能加速对侧听觉途径的退化过程, 使之退化至脑干水平。

Keywords:

• Unilateral cochlear implant
• electrically evoked auditory brainstem response
• auditory pathway
• round window membrane
• sensorineural hearing loss

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province [Grant 1808085MH250, 2008085QH429], The Key Research and Development Program of Anhui Province [Grant 201904a07020084, 201904a07020087] and Talent Fund of Anhui Province [2018H161].