Speech Perception in Children With Auditory Neuropathy/Dyssynchrony Managed With Either Hearing Aids or Cochlear Implants

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate speech perception skills in children with auditory neuropathy (AN)/auditory dyssynchrony (AD)-type hearing loss managed with either hearing aids or cochlear implants. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective data collection in 3 subject groups: AN/AD children fitted with bilateral amplification, AN/AD children fitted with cochlear implant (in 1 or both ears), and a matched control group of implanted children with sensorineural hearing loss. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Open-set monosyllabic words (consonant-nucleus-consonant). RESULTS: Of the 10 implanted AN/AD children, 9 demonstrated significant speech discrimination (consonant-nucleus-consonant phoneme score > or =55%). Similar results were obtained for the aided AN/AD group. Findings for both AN/AD subject groups were poorer than those of the implanted sensorineural cohort. CONCLUSION: Cochlear implantation can offer useful hearing in subjects with AN/AD-type hearing loss. However, expectations for this group may need to be lower than for patients with peripheral (cochlear) loss.