Bilateral cochlear implants in long-term and short-term deafness

Abstract

This is a case study of a 70-year old man with single-sided deafness (SSD) in the right ear since childhood, who developed a sudden severe hearing loss in the left ear at age 63. Eventually, after he received cochlear implants in both ears, he started to present behavioural auditory processing skills associated with binaural hearing, such as improved ability to understand speech in the presence of background noise, and sound localization. Outcomes were measured using cortical auditory evoked potentials, speech perception in noise, sound-localized tests, and a self-rating questionnaire. The results suggest that even after more than 50 years of unilateral deafness it was possible to develop binaural interaction and sound localization as a result of electric auditory stimulation.