Benefit of contralateral hearing aid in adult cochlear implant bearers

Objectives: The present study assessed the interest of a contralateral hearing aid (HA) in adult cochlear implant (CI) bearers. Material and methods: The study recruited 10 French-speaking adult HA bearers with postlingual bilateral hearing loss, fitted for at least 2 years with a unilateral CI after loss of benefit from HA in one ear but continuing to use their contralateral HA: 4 male, 6 female; mean age, 58 years. All had regularly used bilateral HAs prior to CI. Audiometric assessment comprised: (1) individual ear hearing assessment on pure-tone audiometry and speech discrimination; and (2) free-field testing without aid, with CI only, with HA only and with CI plus HA, on pure-tone audiometry and speech discrimination with quiet background and on speech discrimination in noise. Results: Speech discrimination was significantly improved in the bimodal condition (CI plus HA) as compared to CI alone, on all tests. In quiet, discrimination for disyllabic words was > 50% in 7 cases with HA alone, in 2 cases with CI alone and in 1 case in with HA + CI. Under 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio, discrimination was > 50% in 1 case with HA alone, in 3 cases with CI alone and in 6 cases with HA + CI. Conclusion: The present results showed benefit in auditory perception in quiet and in noise with bimodal stimulation. When there is residual hearing in the non-implanted ear, a HA should be fitted; and in progressive bilateral hearing loss, CI should be suggested when HA benefit decreases in one ear. (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.