title: Post-lingual deafness: benefits of cochlear implants vs. conventional hearing aids.
abstract: The technological advances in cochlear implants and processing strategies have enabled subjects affected by severe to profound hearing loss to hear sounds and recognize speech in various different degrees. The variability of hearing outcomes in subjects with post-lingual deafness has been significant and cochlear implant indications have been extended to include an ever larger population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This paper aims to look into the groups of post-lingual deafness patients to find where cochlear implants have yielded better outcomes than conventional hearing aids.
  
  
  METHODS
  Review the literature available on databases SciELO, Cochrane, MEDLINE, and LILACS-BIREME. The publications selected for review were rated as A or B on evidence strength on the day of the review. Their authors analyzed and compared hearing aids and cochlear implants in populations of post-lingually deaf patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Systematic review.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eleven out of the 2,169 papers searched were found to be pertinent to the topic and were rated B for evidence strength. Six studies were prospective cohort trials, four were cross-sectional studies and one was a clinical trial.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The assessment done on the benefits yielded by post-lingually deaf subjects from cochlear implants showed that they are effective and provide for better results than conventional hearing aids.
authors.affiliation: Hospital das Clínicas, Medical School of the University of São Paulo-FMUSP, Brazil. alinebittencourt@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Aline Gomes
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Bittencourt
authors.forename: Liliane Satomi
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Ikari
authors.forename: Ana Adelina Giantomassi
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Della Torre
authors.forename: Ricardo Ferreira
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Bento
authors.forename: Robinson Koji
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.forename: Rubens Vuono de
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Brito Neto
mesh_terms: D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D013067:Speech Perception