Features of cochlear implantation in older adults

Background . Hearing impairment, according to official statistics, occurs in 14% of Russians aged 45–64 and 35% of residents over the age of 75 [1, 8, 11]. According to the forecasts of the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2050, almost 2.5 billion people will suffer from hearing problems to some extent and at least 700 million people will need rehabilitation services due to hearing loss [3, 18]. Aim . To study the features of cochlear implantation and evaluate the effectiveness of hearing and speech rehabilitation in older people. Materials and methods . We observed 25 patients with a diagnosis of grade IV postlingual chronic bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, borderline with deafness (18 women and 7 men), who underwent cochlear implantation at the National Medical Research Center of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia. Before surgical treatment, all patients underwent a comprehensive audiological examination: tonal threshold audiometry, acoustic impedance measurement, registration of otoacoustic emission, registration of short-latency auditory evoked potentials, free sound field audiometry in hearing aids, speech audiometry in a free sound field in hearing aids. In the postoperative period, tonal threshold audiometry with a speech processor was performed. The mean age of patients at the time of cochlear implantation was 68.6 years. Results . We have analyzed the effectiveness of the speech processor adjustment of a cochlear implant in a group of older patients in dynamics by performing tonal threshold audiometry in a free sound field. Conclusion . Cochlear implantation in older adults can improve patients’ life quality, which is a criterion for meeting international standards of medical care.