Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 29, 2025
Systematic Hearing Performance Evaluation Process for Adolescents with Cochlear Implantation at Early Ages
Published on: March 24, 2023
Do Patients Benefit From a Cochlear Implant When They Qualify Only in the Presence of Background Noise?
Emily M H Lundberg1, Darcy Strong2, Melinda Anderson2,3
1Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado.
Objective:
To compare the difference in pre- to postoperative speech performance of patients qualifying for a cochlear implant (CI) in quiet, +10 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and +5 dB SNR.
Study Design:
Retrospective.
Setting:
Tertiary referral center.
Patients:
Fifty-eight post-lingually deafened, unilateral CI recipients from three Groups were included: 1) those who met CI candidacy criteria with AzBio sentences in quiet, 2) in noise at +10 dB SNR but not in quiet, 3) and in noise at +5 dB SNR but not in quiet or +10 dB SNR.
Intervention:
Unilateral CI.
Main Outcome Measures:
Pre- and 1 year postoperative speech recognition scores.
Results:
Best-aided AzBio speech recognition of individuals in Group 1 improved significantly for all test conditions and improved significantly for Groups 2 and 3 in the +10 and +5 dB SNR test conditions postoperatively. When tested with their CI alone however, while AzBio speech recognition of individuals in Group 1 and Group 2 improved significantly in the quiet and +10 dB SNR conditions, speech recognition was not significantly changed postoperatively under any testing condition for individuals in Group 3.
Conclusions:
While individuals qualifying for a CI only in the +5 dB SNR condition may derive significant benefit from implantation in best aided conditions, speech understanding outcomes can be more variable thus warranting additional counseling before implantation and case-by-case consideration of listening needs and goals.
