Fully implantable Otologics MET Carina(™) device for the treatment of sensorineural and mixed hearing loss: Audio-otological results.

CONCLUSION: Our results attest that the Otologics MET Carina(™) is a viable treatment for moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and for cases of mixed hearing loss, and that in selected cases it could represent an alternative to conventional hearing aids. OBJECTIVES: To describe our experience with the fully implantable Carina(™) in eight adult patients, seven with moderate to severe SNHL and one with mixed hearing loss. METHODS: Eight implanted adult patients were submitted to a comprehensive audiological evaluation. RESULTS: We did not record any surgical relevant complication in any of the patients, nor any significant postoperative variation in hearing thresholds, for air conduction or bone conduction, indicating the absence of surgical damage to the cochlea. All the patients demonstrated improvements in speech perception abilities with the device functioning and reported subjective benefits. With regard to the postoperative adverse effects, we had problems with feedback noise, which resolved with minor fitting adjustments in seven cases, while it required a second surgery to change the microphone position in the other patient. In one case a minimal extrusion of the microphone cable occurred requiring a revision surgery, a device failure occurred in one case, requiring substitution, and one patient decided on explantation of the device owing to psychological problems.

Benefit from bimodal hearing in a group of prelingually deafened adult cochlear implant users.

PURPOSE: People who receive a unilateral cochlear implant find speech perception in acoustically complex situations very challenging, in part because they do not have access to binaural hearing. For cochlear implant patients with some residual hearing in the nonimplanted ear, bilateral auditory input can be obtained by the use of a cochlear implant and a contralateral conventional hearing aid. This condition is referred to as "bimodal hearing." MATERIALS AND METHODS: We evaluated the benefits from bimodal stimulation in a group of 10 prelingually deafened adult cochlear implant users, submitted to unilateral cochlear implantation at the ENT Unit of the University of Pisa. RESULTS: Of 10 patients, 9 decided to continue using bimodal stimulation and demonstrated improvements in speech perception both in quiet and in noise condition from bimodal hearing, in comparison to the cochlear implant alone condition. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that bimodal hearing offers some advantages in speech understanding in quiet and noise conditions also in prelingually deafened adults. Moreover, most of our patients reported advantages from bimodal hearing in localizing sound and in perceiving a more natural sound.

Mitochondrial non-syndromic sensorineural hearing loss: a clinical, audiological and pathological study from Italy, and revision of the literature.

Over the last decade, a number of distinct mutations in the mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) have been found to be associated with both syndromic and non-syndromic forms of hearing impairment. Their real incidence as a cause of deafness is poorly understood and generally underestimated. Among the known mtDNA mutations, the A1555G mutation in the 12S gene has been identified to be one of the most common genetic cause of deafness, and it has been described to be both associated to non-syndromic progressive SNHL (sensorineural hearing loss) and to aminoglycoside-induced SNHL. In the present study, we have investigated the presence of mtDNA alterations in patients affected by idiopathic non-syndromic SNHL, both familiar and sporadic, in order to evaluate the frequency of mtDNA alterations as a cause of deafness and to describe the audiological manifestations of mitochondrial non-syndromic SNHL. In agreement with previous studies, we found the A1555G mutation to be responsible for a relevant percentage (5.4%) of cases affected with isolated idiopathic sensorineural hearing impairment.