The Benefits Of Binaural-Bimodal Fitting To The Rehabilitation Of Auditory And Speech For The Patients With Unilateral Cochlear Implant

Objective:The purpose of this study was to determine the superiority of binaural-bimodal fitting(combining a cochlear implant and a hearing aid in opposite ear)in patients with unilateral cochlear implant.Meanwhile,the aim of this study was to discuss the influencing factors which would affect binaural-bimodal patients' speech recognition ability.Methods:33 unilateral cochlear implanted patients with binaural-bimodal fitting were enrolled in this study.The pure tone tests in sound field were measured in three modes:CI mode(only use cochlear implant),HA mode(only use hearing aid)and BIM mode(combining a cochlear implant and a hearing aid in opposite ear).Speech recognition tests included monosyllabic words,disyllabic words,short sentence recognition rate in quiet environment and speech recognition test in noise environment(BKB-SIN).Results:? There was a significant difference in pure tone average(PTA)between CI mode and BIM mode(P<0.05).?The speech recognition rate in BIM mode of monosyllabic words and disyllabic words under quiet environment was better than in CI mode(P<0.05).However,there was no significant difference in short sentence recognition rate between the two modes(P=0.051).The loss of signal-to-noise ratio is 7.69±3.47 dB in BIM mode and 9.56±3.88 dB in CI mode.The difference between the two modes has a significant statistical significance(P<0.05).?The aided thresholds of 1000Hz,2000Hz and 4000Hz in BIM mode were negatively correlated with the overall speech recognition rate in BIM mode(P<0.05).? There were significant statistical differences among groups in the age of cochlear implantation,the duration of binaural-bimodal fitting and the education level of mother(P<0.05).Conclusion:Binaural-bimodal fitting has certain advantages on the auditory and speech recognition ability of patients with unilateral cochlear implant.The speech recognition ability in binaural-bimodal fitting is related to the aided threshold of mid-high frequency.The younger cochlear implanted age,the longer duration of using binaural-bimodal fitting,and the higher education level of the mother,were related to the better speech recognition ability of the patients which using binaural-bimodal fitting.