title: Long-term monaural auditory deprivation and bilateral cochlear implants.
abstract: Long-term binaural auditory deprivation is associated with poorer speech recognition outcomes after cochlear implantation, even for postlingual hearing loss. It is, however, unknown to what extent the outcomes of implantation are related to the peripheral changes occurring monaurally or to changes at a higher level in the auditory system related to binaural deafness. This retrospective study aimed to unravel peripheral and central contributions to cochlear implantation outcomes by comparing outcomes obtained in individual ears for adults with long-term monaural auditory deprivation (i.e. unilateral use of hearing aid) who received bilateral cochlear implants. Results showed that similar outcomes can be obtained with the implant placed in the auditory-deprived or in the aided ear. This suggests that the peripheral changes related to monaural auditory deprivation have little effect on outcomes of cochlear implantation.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Language Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. iboisvert@hearingcrc.org
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Boisvert
authors.forename: Catherine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: McMahon
authors.forename: Richard C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Dowell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001304:Auditory Diseases, Central / Q000601:surgery; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000601:surgery*; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology