Although auditory sensation appeared immediately after device activation, a period of 6 months was necessary for relearning and adaptation of the central auditory system to the altered form of auditory information presented by the auditory brainstem implant.

In all subgroups, an improvement of speech perception can be observed over time. The current patient group showed significant better performing results than those of the first group.

It was concluded that the auditory brainstem implant is an effective support for receiving and, to some degree, differentiating environmental sounds, and that as an adjuvant to lip-reading, it enhances speech perception, especially in quiet surroundings. A comparison between the results of this study and the results of the audiologic tests presented in Part I of this study (published earlier) revealed that patient satisfaction was not directly correlated with the results of the objective auditory tests. In general, patients' judgments of their individual hearing and communication abilities usually rated higher than could have been predicted by the objective audiometric data.

An auditory brainstem implant (ABI) is indicated for patients suffering from bilateral neural deafness. The most affected patients are those with neuro bromatosis type 2 (NF2). An implantation is possible either at the same time as, or after, surgical removal of an acoustic neuroma. This paper demonstrates the results of eight out of 11 patients with NF2, seven of whom received an ABI after tumour removal. Preoperatively, all of them were deaf. Post-operatively, the rst tting served to determine the individual stimulation parameters for each electrode. The stimulation-dependent side-effects were eliminated by reducing the stimulus intensity without causing negative effects on the hearing with the ABI. Only in one case was an open set understanding achieved within the rst year. However, all patients had a better speech understanding when they combined their hearing with the ABI and their lipreading abilities. There is no correlation between the performance with ABI and the tumour size or the duration of deafness.

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