Aurioral Rehabilitation in Consanguineous Cochlear Implanted Patients: Related Experience

Abstract

Introduction: Hearing loss causes comprehension difficulties, worsens speech perception and discrimination, and decreases the deaf quality of life. Objective: To describe the results of variations in impedance measurements (IM) and the advances of hearing categories in cochlear implant (IC) patients. Method: Qualitative, descriptive, and longitudinal study. Three consanguineous patients implanted and treated in speech therapy with aurioral approach. Telemetry of five-step neural responses was recorded, followed by impedance measurements, sound location tests, simplified Glendonald hearing detection procedure (GASP) tests, Ling sound tests, and recognition of vowels and words. All subjective measures classified the state of hearing categories that ranged 1 (no sound recognition and no oral communication) to 5 (sound localization and oral communication established). The follow-up period was 12 months. Results: There was an overall increase in impedance measurements in all implanted ears. Training in sound localization, auditory memory, auditory closure, background figure, and temporal ordering skills promoted better speech performance. It was noticed that hearing abilities development was adequate because of restored social hearing and communication. Conclusion: The variation of Impedance Measures was continuous and progressive and was concomitant and proportional to the performance improvement of hearing categories, ranging from condition 1 to 5 which improved oral communication in these cases.