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Comparison of cochlear implant performance after round window electrode insertion compared with traditional
1New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, USA.
Objective:
To compare speech perception after undergoing round window (RW) electrode insertion with those who underwent traditional cochleostomy (C) cochlear implant (CI) surgery.
Study Design:
Case series with chart review.
Setting:
Academic cochlear implant center.
Subjects:
Patients who met CI criteria with favorable intraoperative RW anatomy who underwent RW CI electrode insertion. Patients who underwent traditional C surgery were matched for age, duration of deafness, and preoperative hearing.
Methods:
Postoperative speech performance using the consonant-nucleus-consonant (CNC) test, Northwestern University Children's Perception of Speech (NUCHIPS), and Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) between 3 and 48 months after CI.
Results:
A total of 84 patients underwent RW insertion between 2004 and 2011. Of these, 55 had pre- and postoperative speech perception data for analysis. Average age of implantation ranged from 2.4 to 87.3 years (mean ± SD, 42.1 ± 24.2 years) for RW patients. Average age of implantation for matched traditional C patients ranged from 2.3 to 85.6 years (mean ± SD, 43.3 ± 25.0 years). No significant differences in postoperative CI speech perception scores were noted between the RW and C groups at 12 months post-CI (RW group, 55.28% ± 23.26% vs C group, 53.19% ± 24.14%; P = .70).
Conclusion:
Our study found that patients with favorable RW anatomy who underwent RW CI electrode insertion demonstrated comparable speech perception compared with the traditional cochleostomy insertion group.
