Conservation of low-frequency hearing in cochlear implantation

Objective As results with cochlear implants have continued to improve, patients with some remaining cochlear function have become eligible for cochlear implantation. Thus, preservation of acoustic hearing after implantation has gained importance. Hearing preservation can be considered a benchmark for atraumatic implantation preventing neural degeneration from loss of residual hair cells or subsequent to local trauma. In this prospective study, the possibility of preserving low-frequency hearing in cochlear implantation using a modified surgical technique has been explored.Materials and Methods In a prospective study design, 14 subjects with considerable low-frequency hearing of 2–60 dB in the frequency range 125–500 Hz but with unsatisfactory speech understanding with hearing aids of < 35% monosyllabic word understanding were implanted with a MED-EL COMBI-40+ cochlear implant. The insertion depth was intentionally limited to 19–24 mm to prevent damage to low-frequency regions of the cochlea. Pre- and post...