The survey of parents' and adults recipients' satisfaction with cochlear implantation determined by the place of residence.

<b>Introduction:</b> The use of cochlear implants (CI) has been a remarkable success in reducing disabilities in patients with impaired hearing. The definition of success for those patients means improvement of hearing ability for adults, possibility to develop speech and language for children, quality of life improvement and satisfaction with the whole CI implantation procedure. <br><b>The aim:</b> To examine patient satisfaction, determined by their place of residence, with all activities in progress during CI implantation including care in subsequent years. Material and methods: The study was conducted prospectively. Online surveys were sent to 1,906 CI patients, with the response rate reaching 33%; thus 630 surveys were analyzed. Demographic data of the respondents were collected: gender, age of implantation, one- or two-sided implantation, place of residence and implanting clinic. A detailed statistical analysis of the obtained data was performed. <br><b>Results:</b> One of the problems observed was the aspect of waiting time for qualification, implantation and replacement of the speech processor. The second problem was the travel time to the CI center and that was strictly connected with the place of the residence of a patient. Patients' satisfaction with the control visit was high for majority of them. <br><b>Conclusions:</b> This research highlighted the limitations of the current CI service delivery. Significant differences concerning the CI pathway were found for particular regions of Poland. One of the future goals for healthcare providers should be to level out the differences in access to CI services between different regions of Poland.

[Stapedotomie with the use of CO2 laser--"one shot" technique]. / Stapedotomia z uzyciem lasera CO2--technika jednego strzalu.

INTRODUCTION: CO2 laser is used in stapes surgery due to good water absorption and quite optimal ablation of a bony structure without the influence of inner ear parameters. AIM OF THE STUDY: the assessment of the influence of CO2 - "one shot" laser on hearing results in the patients group with otosclerosis. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The study was carried out on a patients group after surgical treatment. The follow up time was at least 6 months. The hearing results were described according to the guidelines of the American Committee on Hearing and Equilibrium. The obtained results were statistically analysed with the use of the Wilcoxon sequence pair test. RESULTS: The CO2 - "one shot" laser has been used in Department of Otolaryngology in Poznan since July 2009. Using this system 101 operations were carried out to the end of December 2011. 54 patients were in the analysed group, there were 40 women and 14 men, the age range from 22 to 59. In the Wilcoxon sequence pair test there was a statistically significant correlation between the value of the hearing threshold in pre- and post-operative examinations at 0.5, 1, 2 and 3kHz for bone and air conduction. We found also a statistically significant correlation between the mean value of the air-bone gap before and after treatment. In the group after the surgery the cochlear reserved became closed or decreased (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: based of the hearing results we found great usefulness of CO2 - "one shot" laser in stapes surgery.

[Evaluation of speech perception depending of number of spectral maxima in implanted adults]. / Ocena percepcji mowy w funkcji zaprogramowanej ilosci maksimów spektralnych u pacjentów doroslych z implantem slimakowym.

SUBJECTS: 11 adults cochlear implant users, age since 18 till 70 years old (mean 43); 6 male and 5 female; diagnosis-postlingual deafness; used CI over 3 years. METHOD: The aim of study was evaluation of an optimal number of spectral speech coding maxima. The speech audiometry in free field for programmed 8, 10 and 12 spectral maxima and subjective evaluation of quality of speech perception in different acoustic environmental were performed. RESULTS: Results of the study showed the better speech intelligibility for programmed 8 (approx. 54%) and 10 spectral maxima (27%). CONCLUSION: The number of speech spectral maxima over 10 is not necessary to increasing of speech intelligibility. In the BTE (behind the ear) speech processor the power consumtion were important reduced for 8 spectral maxima. Application of 810 number of maxima is optimal in first session (switch-on) programming of speech processor.