Binaural hearing effect in children wearing cochlear implants and hearing aids

—Comparison with children wearing only cochlear implants—

Abstract

We compared 5 children wearing a cochlear implant plus hearing aid (CI+HA) with 5 children wearing a cochlear implant alone (CI) in terms of the hearing acuity of the non-implanted ear, the hearing threshold, and the speech intelligibility. The following differences were observed between the CI+HA group and the CI group.
It was found that in the CI+HA group, the average pure-tone hearing level of the non-implanted ear was about 90dBHL; therefore, the average speech intelligibility of the CI+HA group was better than that of the CI group.
It was also found that the children in the CI+HA group realized that their hearing improved with the wearing of the cochlear implant and hearing aid, whereas the children in the CI group were unwilling to wear a hearing aid in the non-implanted ear because they did not realize the effectiveness of a hearing aid. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the hearing acuity of the non-implanted ear and the binaural hearing effectiveness with the wearing of a cochlear implant and hearing aid. Furthermore, we should consider the necessity of a hearing aid for the non-implanted ear through observation of the auditory responses in children, and perform counseling for the children.