CT-guided CI electrode deactivation benefits only half of recipients

Evidence

Noble et al. ( 2014 ) used a CT-guided technique in which preand post-operative scans were used to determine the electrode positioning with respect to the modiolus. Poorly positioned electrodes were deactivated and additional mapping adjustments made. Assessments were conducted at baseline and following a 3–6 week exposure period with the adjusted map. Learning effects were not accounted for. Thirty-six out of 72 (50 %) participants demonstrated a benefit on one outcome measure (CNC words, AzBio sentences (quiet, +10 dB, +5 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)) and BKBSin), 17 had a significant degradation in performance (24 %), three cochlear users had mixed results (4 %) and the final 16 participants did not demonstrate any effect of the de-activation (22 %). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2050

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s knowledge of cochlear implant fitting and spectral resolution.