Early experience with the cochlear ESPrit ear-level speech processor in children

The ESPrit ear-level speech processor has recently become available in the United Kingdom for use with the Nucleus CI24M multichannel cochlear implant. We report on the use of this ear-level processor with 6 children, ages 8 to 15 years. In this study, all patients were initially fitted with the SPrint body-worn processor, this being a prerequisite for programming the ESPrit. Five of the children were fitted successfully with the ESPrit and are using their devices consistently. The results show that patient experience with the ESPrit has been favorable, although there have been some device and programming difficulties. Aided threshold measures show that the ESPrit processor performs at least as well as the SPrint processor, with a trend toward improved aided thresholds for the ESPrit processor compared with the SPrint processor. Further study of the functional benefit of both of these devices may confirm these potential gains. The ESPrit device currently has a disadvantage for children in that it does not support FM radio hearing aid use. Finally, caution is advised in the fitting of the ESPrit in very young children or inexperienced listeners, because of difficulties in monitoring device function.