Is there a right cochlear implant advantage?
OBJECTIVE
To compare behavioral speech perception performance of children with right versus left cochlear implants (CIs).


METHODS
A retrospective cohort study.


METHODS
Academic university medical center.


METHODS
Seventy-one prelingually deafened children that obtained a CI device at 48 months or younger.


METHODS
Cochlear implantation with Cochlear, Advanced Bionics, and Med-El devices.


METHODS
Patients were divided into 2 groups according to ear of implant (right, n = 30; left, n = 41) and matched in age at implantation and preoperative audiologic results. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to evaluate the effects of 1) side of CI, 2) age at implantation, 3) time with CI (T1, 18-24 mo; T2, 36-42 mo), and 4) dominance (i.e., compatibility between CI side and handedness) on performance in a monosyllabic open-set test scored for words and phonemes.


RESULTS
A small yet significant "right CI advantage" was evident throughout the study follow-up and was independent of age at implantation. The performance of children implanted at 24 months or younger was significantly higher than that of children implanted between 25 and 48 months. Regardless of CI side and age at implantation, all children exhibited improvement in speech perception with continuous use.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study provides first-time evidence for a right CI advantage for speech perception in prelingually deafened children that can be taken into account when selecting side of CI in candidates with similar residual hearing in both ears and no anatomic constraints. The present data lend further support to the notions that greater gains in speech perception are associated with earlier age at implantation and continuous use.
Henkin
Yael
Y
Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. henkin@post.tau.ac.il
Taitelbaum-Swead
Riki
R
Hildesheimer
Minka
M
Migirov
Lela
L
Kronenberg
Jona
J
Kishon-Rabin
Liat
L
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000465:Algorithms; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*