The hearing benefit of cochlear implantation for individuals with unilateral hearing loss, but no tinnitus.

CONCLUSION

Cochlear implants improve the hearing abilities of individuals with unilateral hearing loss and no tinnitus. The benefit is no different from that seen in patients with unilateral hearing loss and incapacitating tinnitus.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate hearing outcomes after cochlear implantation in individuals with unilateral hearing loss and no tinnitus and compare them to those obtained in a similar group who had incapacitating tinnitus.

METHODS

Six cases who did not experience tinnitus before operation and 15 subjects with pre-operative tinnitus were evaluated with a structured interview, a monosyllabic word test under difficult listening situations, a sound localization test, and an APHAB (abbreviated profile of hearing aid benefit) questionnaire.

RESULTS

All subjects used their cochlear implant more than 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. In 'no tinnitus' patients, mean benefit of cochlear implantation was 19% for quiet speech, 15% for speech in noise (with the same signal-to-noise ratio in the implanted and non-implanted ear), and 16% for a more favourable signal-to-noise ratio at the implanted ear. Sound localization error improved by an average of 19°. The global score of APHAB improved by 16%. The benefits across all evaluations did not differ significantly between the 'no tinnitus' and 'tinnitus' groups.