Results with the currently used cochlear implant.
Over the past 7 years we have implanted the Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant in 60 patients with severe hearing impairment. The postoperative speech recognition of adult postlingually deaf patients was satisfactory. Adult prelingually deaf patients exhibited poorer speech perception than postlingually deaf patients. However, some patients showed better results than expected. The prelingually deaf patients needed a longer rehabilitation period than the postlingually deaf patients. There was considerable variation in performance among the prelingually deaf patients. As for juvenile deaf patients, some showed good speech perception ability, but postoperative rehabilitation took longer. The cooperation of doctors, audiologists, speech therapists, schoolteachers, and family members was essential, and the creation of a cochlear implant center for children is desirable to obtain better rehabilitation. On the questionnaire given to the cochlear implant patients, some complained about their hearing in a noisy environment or while listening to television or music. The present cochlear implant system obviously needs further improvement.
Ito
J
J
Department of Otolaryngology, Otsu Red Cross Hospital, Japan.
Takagi
A
A
Kawano
M
M
Takahashi
H
H
Honjo
I
I
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D013067:Speech Perception