Feasibility of Speech Testing Using Wireless Connection in Single-Sided Cochlear Implant Users.

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Otorhinolaryngology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Current speech tests for cochlear implant (CI) patients with bilateral deafness (BiD) are unsuitable for those with single-sided deafness (SSD) due to the need to exclude normal hearing.
• Evaluating the CI ear in SSD patients requires methods that effectively isolate its performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of using a wireless connection for speech intelligibility testing in the CI ear of SSD patients.
• To compare wireless testing with conventional methods for both BiD and SSD populations.

Main Methods:

• Patients with BiD and SSD underwent word recognition scores (WRS) and speech intelligibility tests.
• Testing utilized an iPad-based wireless connection and conventional approaches.
• For SSD patients, masking noise (WRS) and a "plugged and muffed" method (speech intelligibility) were employed to exclude the non-CI ear's contribution.

Main Results:

• Wireless and conventional methods yielded similar WRS and speech intelligibility results in BiD patients.
• For SSD patients, WRS with masking noise in the normal ear correlated well with wireless testing results.
• The "plugged and muffed" method resulted in under-masking in 3 out of 11 SSD patients.

Conclusions:

• Wireless speech intelligibility testing offers a convenient and dependable way to assess CI performance in SSD patients.
• The "plugged and muffed" method is not recommended for evaluating CI performance in SSD due to potential under-masking issues.