Cochlear Implants and the Aided Audiogram: A Retrospective Study Comparing Performance Across Device Manufacturers

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Hearing Science

Background:

• Cochlear implants (CIs) are crucial for hearing restoration.
• Variations in CI performance across manufacturers are not fully understood.
• Understanding these differences can optimize patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare CI-aided hearing thresholds and speech perception scores across different CI manufacturers.
• To investigate the relationship between CI-aided thresholds and speech perception abilities.
• To explore potential reasons for observed performance differences.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of exploratory data from NYU and confirmatory data from ASAN clinic (120 CI users).
• Comparison of CI-aided soundfield evaluations between Cochlear, Advanced Bionics (AB), and MED-EL manufacturers.
• Assessment using pure-tone averages (PTAs), incidence of elevated thresholds, and speech perception scores.

Main Results:

• MED-EL and AB users exhibited significantly poorer pure-tone averages compared to Cochlear users.
• A higher percentage of MED-EL and AB users had elevated 5- or 6-pure-tone averages (PTAs) above 35 dB HL.
• Cochlear users demonstrated superior word and sentence recognition scores, potentially linked to behaviorally-measured T-levels.

Conclusions:

• Significant disparities in CI-aided thresholds and speech perception exist among manufacturers.
• Brand-specific T-level programming strategies may contribute to these observed performance variations.
• Further research into programming methodologies is warranted to enhance CI efficacy.