[AUDITORY OUTCOMES OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION IN MENIERE'S DISEASE]

Cochlear implants are valuable in the auditory rehabilitation of patients with severe to profound hearing loss. However, there is limited data on the outcomes of cochlear implantation in patients with Meniere's disease (MD).

In this study, we aim to evaluate the auditory outcomes of cochlear implantation in patients with MD.

A retrospective case series of patients with MD and severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), who underwent cochlear implantation at a tertiary academic center between 2006-2017. Patient's clinical characteristics and audiometric data were reviewed.

The study included 20 ears in 19 patients with MD who underwent cochlear implantation with available pre- and postoperative audiometric data. There were 10 males and 9 females with a mean age of 63 years and a mean follow-up duration of 70.8 months. Pre- and post-implant CNC word recognition scores were 18.31% and 66.89%, respectively (p<0.001). Pre- and post-implant AzBio and/or HINT sentence recognition scores were 12.25% and 68.28% in quiet, respectively (p<0.001), and 18.25% and 63.43% in noise, respectively (p<0.001).

Cochlear implantation resulted in an improvement of word and sentence recognition scores in MD patients. These results support the role of cochlear implants in the auditory rehabilitation of MD.

Dr. Samy received research support from Cochlear Corporation.