Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Sep 22;10(19):4305.
doi: 10.3390/jcm10194305.

Cochlear Implantation in Elderly Patients with Residual Hearing

Farnaz Matin  1 , Eralp-Niyazi Artukarslan  1 , Angelika Illg  1 , Anke Lesinski-Schiedat  1 , Thomas Lenarz  1 , Marie Charlot Suhling  1
Affiliations

Cochlear Implantation in Elderly Patients with Residual Hearing

Farnaz Matin et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

This retrospective study aimed to investigate the range of hearing levels in a cochlear implant (CI) elderly population receiving electric-acoustic-stimulation (EAS) or electric-stimulation (ES) alone. The investigation evaluates the degree of hearing preservation (HP) and the speech comprehension resulting from EAS or ES-only to identify audiometric factors that predict adequate EAS and ES use. We analyzed the pure tone audiometry and speech perception in quiet and noise preoperatively and 12-months after activation of 89 elderly adults (age of 65 years old or older), yielding in total 97 CIs. Thirty-two (33.1%) patients were potential EAS candidates preoperatively, of which 18 patients used EAS at the time of first fitting and the other 14 patients continued to use their residual hearing for EAS at 12-months. Post-treatment, patients with EAS system and ES-only users' with longer electrodes showed better results in monosyllable word scores in quiet than ES-only users with shorter electrodes. A similar trend was revealed for the speech recognition in noise. Patients with an EAS system benefit from maintaining their natural residual hearing. Nevertheless, strict preoperative patient selection is warranted particularly in elderly patients, in whom the hearing thresholds for EAS indication differ slightly from that in younger adults.

Keywords: cochlear implant; elderly patients; electric-acoustic-stimulation; hearing preservation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pre- and postoperative median hearing levels, minimum and maximum for all 97 ears, divided into groups: (A) preoperative, (B) FF, (C) 12-months after FF.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Median, interquartile, and minimum and maximum scores after 12-months: Statistical significances are marked with * for p < 0.05 A) FMWT, (B) HSM sentence in quiet, (C) HSM sentence in noise.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Median, interquartile, minimum and maximum FMWT scores preoperatively (unaided at optimum dB SPL, tested with headphones) and 12-months postoperatively (i.e., CI use). Significant differences are marked with * for p < 0.05, and *** for p < 0.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sprinzl G.M., Schoerg P., Edlinger S.H., Magele A. Long-term Hearing Preservation in Electric Acoustic Cochlear Implant Candidates. Otol. Neurotol. 2020;41:750–757. doi: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000002627. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Manrique-Huarte R., Calavia D., Irujo A.H., Girón L., Manrique-Rodríguez M. Treatment for Hearing Loss among the Elderly: Auditory Outcomes and Impact on Quality of Life. Audiol. Neurotol. 2016;21:29–35. doi: 10.1159/000448352. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Popelka M.M., Cruickshanks K.J., Wiley T.L., Tweed T.S., Klein B.E.K., Klein R. Low prevalence of hearing aid use among older adults with hearing loss: The Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study. J. Am. Geriatr. Soc. 1998;46:1075–1078. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1998.tb06643.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Von Gablenz P., Holube I. Hearing Loss and Speech Recognition in the Elderly. Laryngorhinootologie. 2017;96:759–764. - PubMed
    1. Huber M., Roesch S., Pletzer B., Lukaschyk J., Lesinski-Schiedat A., Illg A. Cognition in older adults with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss compared to peers with normal hearing for age. Int. J. Audiol. 2019;59:254–262. doi: 10.1080/14992027.2019.1687947. - DOI - PubMed