Impact of Duration of Deafness on Speech Perception in Single-Sided Deafness Cochlear Implantation in Adults

Objective: To evaluate the impact of prolonged auditory deprivation on speech perception outcomes in adult acquired single-sided deafness (SSD) cochlear implant (CI) recipients. Study Design: Retrospective case series. Setting: Tertiary care academic center. Patients: Acquired SSD in adults with and without prolonged duration of deafness (defined as >10 yr) who underwent CI between 2014 and 2019. Interventions: CI. Main Outcome Measures: Consonant-nucleus-consonant (CNC) and AzBio in quiet scores within first year of follow-up. Results: A total of 35 adult patients with SSD were evaluated, with a median overall duration of deafness of 2.4 years (interquartile range [IQR] 1.2-6.0 yr): seven patients with prolonged auditory deprivation (median 18 yr, IQR 15-28) were compared with 28 SSD patients with duration of deafness less than 10 years (median 1.7 yr, IQR 1.1-3.2). At last follow-up, the median CNC scores were 39% (IQR 31-64) and 54% (IQR 46-64) for the prolonged and shorter duration of deafness cohorts, respectively (p = 0.3). The median AzBio scores were 66% (IQR 65-68) and 72% (IQR 60-82) for the prolonged and shorter duration of deafness cohorts, respectively (p = 0.6). In a separate analysis evaluating duration of deafness as a continuous variable across all 35 patients, Spearman correlation coefficients for associations of duration of deafness with most recent CNC and AzBio scores were -0.02 (p = 0.9) and 0.02 (p = 0.9), respectively. Conclusions: Adult CI recipients with acquired SSD, with and without prolonged auditory deprivation, demonstrated comparable speech perception scores. Prolonged duration of deafness alone should not preclude a motivated SSD patient from undergoing cochlear implantation.

Automated summary

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of prolonged auditory deprivation on speech perception outcomes in adult acquired single-sided deafness (SSD) cochlear implant (CI) recipients. The retrospective case series found that adult CI recipients with prolonged auditory deprivation showed comparable speech perception scores to those without. Therefore, prolonged duration of deafness alone should not preclude a motivated SSD patient from undergoing cochlear implantation.