title: Developing an assessment approach for perceptual changes to tinnitus sound characteristics for adult cochlear implant recipients.
abstract: To investigate the impact of cochlear implantation on tinnitus suppression, characteristics, localization, and duration.
  
  
  
  A cochlear implant (CI) recipient-focused postal questionnaire survey.
  
  
  
  The questionnaire was posted, with consent, to 100 adults who had received a unilateral CI at the RNTNEH between 1988 and 1999. All adults spoke English as their first language and were postlingually deafened. Sixty-eight adults (38 female, 29 male, one unspecified) aged 31-80 years (mean 61 years) completed and returned the questionnaire without interview.
  
  
  
  With the processor 'ON', CI recipients experienced total or partial suppression of tinnitus ipsilateral to their CI in 57% of cases, and in 43% where tinnitus was perceived contralateral to the CI. The percentage of CI recipients who experienced high tone tinnitus was reduced from 60% pre-implant to 29% post-implant with the processor 'ON' while pulsatile tinnitus was reduced from 38% pre-implant to 13% post-implant. CIs were also found to reduce the tonal complexity and duration, and change the source localization of tinnitus post-implantation.
  
  
  
  Perceptual changes to tinnitus can take place post-implantation. Changes can occur within the four categories explored: tinnitus suppression, characteristics, localization, and duration of awareness per day.
authors.affiliation: a UCL Ear Institute , London , UK and.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Greenberg
authors.affiliation: b Royal National Throat , Nose & Ear Hospital , London , UK.
authors.forename: Leah
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meerton
authors.affiliation: b Royal National Throat , Nose & Ear Hospital , London , UK.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.affiliation: a UCL Ear Institute , London , UK and.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vickers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001299:Audiometry; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D001364:Awareness; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Tinnitus-characteristics; cochlear implants; tinnitus-localization; tinnitus-suppression