title: Outcomes of visually impaired patients who received cochlear implantations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patients with multiple sensory deficits, including hearing loss and visual impairment, present a unique problem. We evaluated the clinical outcomes of cochlear implantation in patients with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss and visual impairment.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed eight patients with severe sensorineural hearing loss and visual impairment who underwent cochlear implantation at our institution between 1993 and 2014. The follow-up period was between 2 and 20 years. We evaluated the case histories, etiologies of hearing loss and visual impairment, pre- and postoperative pure-tone thresholds, speech perception rates after CI using the Japanese CD speech discrimination scoring system (CI-2004 test) for words and sentences, and pre- and postoperative communication means. Postoperative speech discrimination scores were compared between patients with and without visual impairment who underwent cochlear implantation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The outcomes of cochlear implantation were good in all patients, with seven showing the ability to hold a conversation with others. The average proportion of correct answers for words and sentences in the CI-2004 test was 72.3 ± 19.1% and 86.0 ± 16.1%, respectively, for the patients with visual impairment and 62.1 ± 21.7% and 78.5 ± 20.9%, respectively, for those without visual impairment (based on auditory senses only). There were no significant differences in results between the patients with and without visual impairment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cochlear implantation is important for the rehabilitation of patients with severe auditory loss and visual impairment. Medical staff members require additional skills to perform auditory evaluations and rehabilitate patients with multiple sensory deficits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Japan. Electronic address: kent@sapmed.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takano
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Aya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaizaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Etsuko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Saikawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Ayami
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Konnno
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ogasawara
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Himi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000150:complications / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013067:Speech Perception; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000150:complications*
keywords: Cochlear implantation; Communication abilities; Profound hearing loss; Visual impairment