Objective: To measure functional and audiologic outcomes in patient with severe to profound post-lingual sensorineural hearing loss using either binaural hearing aids, unilateral cochlear implant or bimodal hearing.
Patients and Methods: This observational cross-sectional study was conducted on 60 adult patients with post-lingual bilateral severe to profound SNHL with age range from 20-50 years divided into 3 equal groups; Group I: 20 patients using binaural regular powerful hearing aids, Group II: 20 patients with unilateral cochlear implant and Group III: 20 patients using bimodal hearing strategy. The functional outcome was measured by using the Categorical Auditory Performances (CAP) scale which is ranged from 0 to 7. The auditory outcome was measured by aided audiometry threshold and clear speech perception test.
Results: The CAP score showed higher score in group III as compared to the other groups and the number of participants with CAP score 5 and above was 0 in group I, 6 (30 %) in group II and 12 (60 %) in group III. This was a highly statistically significant difference in mean aided threshold among the 3 groups 42.5, 37.5 and 21.67 respectively. This was a highly statistically significant difference between the three groups in clear speech perception with increased performance in group III in both quiet and variable noisy situations.
Conclusion: Bimodal hearing is beneficial when there is a good selection and good optimization of the fitting criteria of the HA. Our study recommends putting guidelines for bimodal candidacy which maximize patient benefits.