Contralateral hearing aid use in cochlear implanted patients: multicenter study of bimodal benefit.
CONCLUSIONS
The use of a hearing aid (HA) in combination with a cochlear implant (CI) significantly improved performance for speech perception in quiet, in noise, and for localization compared with monaural conditions. No significant differences in functional performance were observed following optimization of HA fitting.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the binaural benefits derived from using a contralateral HA in conjunction with a CI in subjects with significant functional hearing in the nonimplanted ear and the effects of HA fitting optimization.


METHODS
Fifteen adult CI users, intra-subject controls, were enrolled in a prospective repeated-measure multicenter study. Evaluation of performance for speech understanding, localization, and subjective impressions was conducted before and following HA fitting optimization for CI alone, HA alone, and CI + HA.


RESULTS
For speech testing in quiet, bimodal scores were significantly better than for HA alone and CI alone conditions (p < 0.01). For speech and noise (S0N0) at 0° azimuth the scores were significantly better in the bimodal condition than for CI alone (p = 0.01), indicating binaural summation. When noise was presented to the HA side (S0NHA) bimodal scores were significantly better than for CI alone (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively), suggesting a significant binaural squelch effect. Sound localization ability was significantly improved in the bimodal condition compared with the CI alone condition (p = 0.002).
Hospital Universitario 'La Fe', Valencia, Spain.
Constantino
C
Morera
Laura
L
Cavalle
Manuel
M
Manrique
Alicia
A
Huarte
Ramos
R
Angel
Angel
A
Osorio
Luis
L
Garcia-Ibañez
Elisabeth
E
Estrada
Constantino
C
Morera-Ballester
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech / Q000379:methods; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000379:methods; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D013017:Sound Localization; D013067:Speech Perception; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult