Background: Cochlear implantation is the standard treatment for the severe to profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Candidacy criteria have expanded gradually due to technological developments and increasing experience. Main expansions include very young age, residual hearing, additional handicaps & special etiologies of deafness.
Aim of the work: To compare the outcomes of children with bilateral severe to profound SNHL with cochlear implant versus children with severe SNHL with hearing aids. Patient and Methods: 60 children with age 5-15 years divided into 2 groups were included in the present study. Group I: 30 binaural HA users with bilateral severe sensorineural hearing loss. Group II: 30 CI users with bilateral severe to profound hearing loss. Test battery of outcome measures (Arabic versions) were done to evaluate and compare outcome of both groups including measures for: audibility, aided speech recognition test using PBKG lists, perception of everyday sounds by MAIS questionnaire and language assessment using PLS 4 test.
Results: Results showed that HA group scored better than CI group in aided speech recognition test by PBKG lists, MAIS questionnaire and PLS 4 test. CI group got better aided thresholds. Conclusion: Children with severe hearing loss using hearing aids have the potential to receive sufficient auditory information from conventional hearing aids to acquire age-appropriate spoken communication.