A comparison study of speech perception abilities of adult implant patients using the MED-EL, Clairon and nucleus cochlear implants

The primary purpose of this study was to compare the speech perception abilities of adult cochlear implant patients on the basis of type of cochlear implant. Each group was matched according to age, length of deafness, degree of loss prior to implantation, hearing aid use, articulation index, pure-tone average, length of time with the cochlear implant, and more subjective motivational factors. The participants consisted of 24 individuals all chosen from the University of Utah ear, nose, and throat clinic. The first group consisted of adult subjects using the Nucleus 24 and Contour cochlear implant devices. The second group consisted of adult subjects implanted using the Clarion device. Included in the Clarion group, were subjects using the CII Bionic Ear System and the High Focus cochlear implants. The Clarion High Focus and Nucleus 24 Contour devices are similar with respect to the use of a modiolar hugging electrode. The third group consisted of adult MED-EL COMBI 40+ cochlear implant users. Cochlear implant comparisons occurred at the phoneme, word and sentence level. Utilizing speech recognition for various materials can provide information about cochlear implant efficacy. Cochlear implant speech discrimination ability is often measured at the phoneme, word, and sentence level; thus these types of materials were selected.; In order to obtain uniformity between subjects, recognition tests were presented using recorded lists rather than monitored live voice. Descriptive as well as quantitative statistical methods were applied to the data in order to compare and contrast the abilities of each group of cochlear implant recipients.; Although descriptive statistics showed the mean scores of the Nucleus 24 and Clarion cochlear implants were on average higher than the MED-EL cochlear implant on every speech recognition measure, parametric and nonparametric statistical measures showed no significant differences between the devices. Evidence from the data suggests no significant differences in the speech recognition abilities of the MED-EL, Nucleus 24 and Clarion cochlear implant groups.