Electro-Natural Stimulation in Partial Deafness Treatment of Adult Cochlear Implant Users: Long-Term Hearing Preservation Results.

BACKGROUND

Due to the constant development of technology and medicine, the eligibility criteria for cochlear implantation (CI) are undergoing gradual expansion.

OBJECTIVES

To provide long-term hearing preservation (HP) results for partial deafness treatment (PDT) of a group of adults using electro-natural stimulation (ENS).

METHODS

We examined a database of medical records of patients who underwent CI in a single ENT center. We identified 12 adults (3 men and 9 women) who fitted the PDT-ENS classification. To calculate HP, we used the -HEARRING consensus and conducted statistical analyses using SPSS v24.

RESULTS

In the long-term follow-up, 7 of 12 patients had complete HP and the remaining 5 had partial HP. None of the patients experienced significant hearing impairment. A significant improvement in speech understanding in both quiet and noise conditions was also observed.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of minimally invasive surgery leads to excellent HP results in PDT-ENS patients, enabling them to enjoy the benefits of good speech discrimination which they would be unable to get from traditional hearing aids. Our findings support extending the inclusion criteria for CI to include this new group of patients who would otherwise obtain only limited benefit from conventional hearing aids.