Single Side Deafness: Cochlear Implant or CROS Hearing Aid?

SCIENCE UPDATE

New scientific studies summarized for you

SINGLE SIDED DEAFNESS: COCHLEAR IMPLANT OR CROS HEARING AID?

(Original paper: Speech Perception in Noise and Sound Localization for Cochlear Implant with Single-sided Deafness Compared with Contralateral Routing of Signal Hearing Aids. Otol Neurotol 2023. Oyamada S et al.)

Take-home message:

Patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) using a cochlear implant (CI) have significantly better speech understanding in noise and sound localisation than single-sided patients using CROS hearing aids. This can be explained by the binaural auditory benefits the CI delivers which additionally enhance SSD patients’ quality of life.

Background:

Patients with SSD often face difficulties in understanding speech in noise or localising sound because they are lacking the binaural auditory input. This is a confounding factor for their quality of life.

The study compares the effectiveness for SSD patients treated with a cochlear implant and a CROS hearing aid respectively in these two challenging fields.

Method:

• Retrospective study with 87 SSD patients.
• 33 patients chose a CROS hearing aid for treatment
• 17 patients chose a CI for treatment
• 37 patients decided not to have their hearing loss treated
• Speech perception tests in noise was tested in a free field before and after intervention
• Sound localisation was tested in a semianechoic chamber with 9 loudspeakers in front of study participants, presented to better ear, before and after intervention
• Subjective assessment questionnaires on hearing handicap (HHIA), hearing device benefit (APHAB) and functional health and well-being (SF-36v2 Health Survey)

Results

• Before the intervention no significant differences between the three groups (CI, CROS, untreated) were observed in speech understanding in noise and sound localisation.
• After the intervention the CI group showed significant localization improvements compared to baseline and in comparison with the CROS and untreated patient cohorts.
• 12 months after the intervention speech understanding in noise improved significantly for the CI group, while the CROS cohort did not show any improvements.
• The CI group reported significant improvements in terms of their functional health and well-being, contrary to the CROS and untreated groups.
• A CI can alleviate tinnitus in the deaf ear significantly, adding to the improvements in subjective quality of life.

Read the study here: Speech Perception in Noise and Sound Localization for Cochlear Implant With Single-Sided Deafness Compared With Contralateral Routing of Signal Hearing Aids – PubMed (nih.gov)