Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 21, 2026
Enhanced Cochlear Coverage and Hearing Preservation in High-Frequency Hearing Loss via Electric Acoustic Stimulation with Longer Electrode
Published on: October 11, 2024
Bilateral cochlear implantation for children in nagasaki, Japan
Yukihiko Kanda1, Hidetaka Kumagami, Minoru Hara
1Kanda ENT Clinic, Nagasaki Bell Hearing Center, Nagasaki, Japan.
Insights
Bilateral cochlear implants (CI) significantly improve speech understanding in children compared to single CIs. Early implantation and auditory-verbal therapy enhance outcomes for pediatric hearing loss.
Area of Science:
- Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology
- Otorhinolaryngology
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Increasing adoption of bilateral cochlear implants (CI) due to recognized effectiveness.
- Pediatric CI users receiving auditory-verbal/oral habilitation are a growing demographic.
- Need to evaluate the efficacy of bilateral CI in this population.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of bilateral cochlear implants (CI) in 29 pediatric CI users.
- To assess audiological abilities in children who received auditory-verbal/oral habilitation.
- To compare outcomes between single and bilateral CI use.
Main Methods:
- Evaluated 29 Japanese children with bilateral CIs.
- Assessed audiological abilities including wearing threshold, word recognition, and speech discrimination.
- Tested speech understanding at various distances and under noise conditions (S/N ratio 80 dB SPL/70 dB SPL).
Main Results:
- Bilateral CI demonstrated superior performance in all speech understanding tests compared to single CI.
- Significant improvements observed in speech discrimination and word recognition scores with bilateral CI.
- Younger children (under 9 years) showed better speech understanding under noise with a second CI.
Conclusions:
- Bilateral CI offers significant binaural advantages, including binaural summation and head shadow effect.
- Bilateral CI is a highly effective intervention for pediatric severe-to-profound hearing loss in Japan and globally.
- Early intervention with bilateral CI and auditory habilitation is crucial for optimal outcomes.
Objectives:
The number of patients with bilateral cochlear implant (CI) has gradually increased as patients and/or parents recognize its effectiveness. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the efficacy of 29 bilateral CI out of 169 pediatric CI users, who received auditory-verbal/oral habilitation at our hearing center.
Methods:
We evaluated the audiological abilities 29 Japanese children with bilateral CIs including wearing threshold, word recognition score, speech discrimination score at 1 m from front speaker (SP), 1 m from second CI side SP, speech discrimination score under the noise (S/N ratio=80 dB sound pressure level [SPL]/70 dB SPL, 10 dB) at 1 m from front SP, word recognition score under the noise (S/N ratio=80 dB SPL/70 dB SPL, 10 dB) at 1 m from front SP.
Results:
Binaural hearing using bilateral CI is better than first CI in all speech understanding tests. Especially, there were significant differences between the results of first CI and bilateral CI on SDS at 70 dB SPL (P=0.02), SDS at 1 m from second CI side SP at 60 dB SPL (P=0.02), word recognition score (WRS) at 1 m from second CI side SP at 60 dB SPL (P=0.02), speech discrimination score (SDS) at 1 m from front SP under the noise (S/N=80/70; P=0.01) and WRS at 1 m from front SP under the noise (S/N=80/70; P=0.002). At every age, a second CI is very effective. However, the results of under 9 years old were better than of over 9 years old on the mean SDS under the noise (S/N=80/70) on second CI (P=0.04). About use of a hearing aid (HA) in their opposite side of first CI, on the WRS and SDS under the noise, there were significant differences between the group of over 3 years and the group of under 10 months of HA non user before second CI.
Conclusion:
These results may show important binaural effectiveness such as binaural summation and head shadow effect. Bilateral CI is very useful medical intervention for many children with severe-to-profound hearing loss in Japan as well as elsewhere.
