Effect of bimodal hearing in Korean children with profound hearing loss.
CONCLUSIONS
Bimodal hearing with combined acoustic stimulation and electric stimulation could enhance speech performance in deaf patients by residual hearing even though the amount of residual hearing is not enough to be used for communication by amplification.


OBJECTIVE
The cochlear implant (CI) is a well-known therapeutic option for patients with profound hearing loss. However, deaf patients with a CI still have trouble in localization of sounds and understanding speech in a noisy environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefits of bimodal hearing with a CI in one ear and a hearing aid in the contralateral ear in Korean children with profound hearing loss.


METHODS
Fourteen deaf children with residual hearing participated in this study. There were eight male and six female patients, with an age range of 4.6-13.8 years at the time of testing. The test was conducted between 3 months and 4.2 years after cochlear implantation. Speech performance was examined in a noisy environment using Korean word lists. A speech sound and the noise were presented to the child from the front loudspeaker.


RESULTS
The results showed that speech performance in a noisy environment was significantly better with bimodal hearing than with a CI alone.
Lee
Sang-Heun
SH
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Deagu, Korea.
Lee
Kyu-Yup
KY
Huh
Myung-Jin
MJ
Jang
Hee-Sang
HS
D000293:Adolescent; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013017:Sound Localization; D013067:Speech Perception