Adult cochlear implant recipients with a severe or profound hearing loss show marked improvements in their speech perception with a cochlear implant, an Australian study finds.

The study found rapid improvement in speech perception by 3 months and continuing improvement over 12 months after the cochlear implantation.

The study also found that the severe group had better speech perception than the profound hearing loss group after the cochlear implantation which may be explained by the severity of the pre-operative hearing loss.

About the study

In the study, the Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre (SCIC) database was searched for adults who had cochlear implant surgery between 2009 and 2015. A total of 1,751 adults were found in the database to have had surgery performed between 2009 and 2015.

Patients were included in the study if they had a pre-operative four frequency average of profound hearing loss (90 dB HL and above) or a severe hearing loss (70– 89 dB HL).

The study, “Cochlear Implant Outcomes in Patients With Severe Compared With Profound Hearing Loss”, was published in the journal Otology & Neurotology.

Sources:  www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov and the journal Otology & Neurotology.