TITLE:
Hearing and Life Quality Assessment in Post-Language Patients Following Cochlear Implant
AUTHORS:
Giselle de Martin Truzzi, Raquel Andrade Lauria, Alexandre Caixeta Guimarães, Sílvia Badur Curi, Arthur Menino Castilho, Jorge Rizzato Paschoal, Luciane Calonga, Walter Adriano Bianchini, Guilherme Machado de Carvalho
KEYWORDS:
Cochlear Implants, Satisfaction, Quality of Life, Hearing Loss
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.2 No.12,
December
4,
2015
ABSTRACT: Introduction: Hearing loss affects millions of people worldwide, leading some
of those to economic impairment, social segregation, and a worse quality of life.
Cochlear implants have shown advantages over other treatment alternatives, for
it provides considerable hearing gains and therefore greater social interaction
possibilities to the affected individuals. Objectives: Speech perception
testing and the World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Questionnaire
(WHOQOL) are used to assess the hearing outcomes and the quality of life of
post-lingual patients with severe/profound bilateral neurosensorial hearing
loss treated with cochlear implant (Medel). Methods: Speech perception tests are
applied to selected subjects prior to and following the cochlear implant using Med-EL
CI; the questionnaires assessing quality of life are answered afterwards. Results: There is an improvement in the audiometric
thresholds, and the patients present a good quality of life after cochlear implant.
Conclusion: The evaluation of these subjects permits to conclude that there are
improvements in hearing, and that patients perceive their quality of life to be
good after being subjected to cochlear implant.