Should a hearing aid in the contralateral ear be recommended for children with a unilateral cochlear implant?
OBJECTIVES: To predict bimodal benefit before cochlear implantation, we compared the performances of participants with bimodal fitting and with a cochlear implant alone on speech perception tests. METHODS: Twenty-two children with a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other (bimodal fitting) were included. Several aided and unaided average hearing thresholds and the aided word recognition score of the hearing aid ear were related to the bimodal benefit on a phoneme recognition test in quiet and in noise. Results with bimodal fitting were compared to results with the cochlear implant alone on a phoneme recognition test in quiet and in noise. RESULTS: No relationship was found between any of the hearing thresholds or the aided phoneme recognition score of the hearing aid ear and the bimodal benefit on the phoneme recognition tests. At the group level, the bimodal scores on the phoneme recognition tests in quiet and in noise were significantly better than the scores with
Related Questions
- How is a cochlear implant different from a hearing aid?; Who can benefit from a cochlear implant?; What does the cochlear implant look like?; How is it worn?; How does the implant system work?; and How does the ear normally function?.
- Now that my child wears a cochlear implant, why would he (she) need to wear a hearing aid in the non-implanted ear?
- Should a hearing aid in the contralateral ear be recommended for children with a unilateral cochlear implant?
