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Backgrounds: Tinnitus can be a debilitating condition, that negatively affects a patient's overall health and social wellbeing. Even moderate cases can interfere with the ability to work and socialize. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of tinnitus, whether it originated from right, left, or both sides, on sound localization process. Material and methods: From Jan 2019 to Jul 2019, a total 59 chronic tinnitus patients were enrolled in this study. Of 59 patients, we selected 42 patients (23 males and 19 females) whose mean hearing were less than 60 dB HL and whose net average hearing of both sides were 15 dB or less. Fifteen patients complained of bilateral tinnitus, while 14 and 13 patients complained of right and left tinnitus respectively. Sound localization using three different 3-second pure tone sounds (500 Hz at 65 dB SPL, 4 kHz at 65 dB SPL, and 4 kHz at 90 dB SPL) was assessed using an array of 7 speakers at head level separated by approximately 30 degrees. Results: There were no significant differences in sound localization ability whether patients complained any type tinnitus. Furthermore, high scores of THI or VAS didn't affect sound localization process. Conclusions: From this study, we concluded that even though patients were suffered from severe tinnitus, they might not have difficulties in sound localization unless there is unilateral of bilateral hearing loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The relationship between hearing aid use and the improvement of cognitive function is under investigation. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether hearing aids can recover the temporal resolution or hearing in noise function. Methods: We designed a prospective study of two groups; hearing aid users and control. Patients older than 45 years of age, with pure tone average threshold worse than 40 dB and speech discrimination score better than 60% in both ears were eligible. Central auditory processing tests and hearing in noise test (HINT) were evaluated in the beginning of this study and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the use of hearing aid in HA group and the control group. The changes of the evaluation parameters were statistically analyzed with the linear mixed model. Results: 26 participants (13 in the HA and 13 in the control group) were included in this study. Frequency test (p<0.01) and dichotic test (p=0.04) scores showed significant improvement in the control group after 1 year. HINT scores showed no change. Conclusions: After using HA for 1 year, patients performed better on the tests of temporal resolution. No improvement was documented regarding hearing in noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds: Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) is one of the diseases whose mechanism is not fully understood and is not yet fully cured. As one of convincing etiology of ISSNHL is cochlear ischemia, HBO therapy is suggested to be a promising treatment for hearing recovery, especially for the patients with severe hearing loss (over 70 dB). Objectives: The aim of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of HBO therapy for patients with ISSNHL who showed severe hearing loss. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who were diagnosed with ISSNHL at Asan medical center from January 2016 to December 2017. All the patients enrolled in this study showed over 70 dB HL on the affected ears. Patients in HBO group received HBO therapy 14 times with systemic and intratympanic steroid therapy, while patients in control group received only systemic and intratympanic steroid therapy. Results: Total 82 patients (83 ears) were enrolled in this study. 37 patients (38 ears) were enrolled for HBO group and 45 patients (45 ears) were enrolled for control group. There were no differences in baseline parameter between two groups; gender, age, affected side, combined symptoms such as tinnitus and dizziness, initial glucose level and initial hearing. After 2-weeks treatment, HBO group showed significantly improved hearing than control group (28.1±26.9 dB in HBO group and 14.8±13.5 dB in control group in W4FA, p<0.05), especially in low frequency (0.5 kHz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, p<0.05). Conclusions: From this study, we strongly recommend HBO therapy as initial treatment option for ISSNHL patients who suffer from severe hearing loss or as salvage treatment option for patients who failed from initial steroid treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To evaluate outcomes of elderly patients with cochlear implant (CI) and factors that affect speech performance. Method: Seventy-two elderly patients (60-80 years of age) with post-lingual sensorineural hearing loss who received CI were divided into two groups according to speech performance scores: the poor performance group (monosyllabic word scores <70%, n=40), and the good performance group (monosyllabic word scores ≥70%, n=32). The distribution and contribution of the potential factors related to CI outcomes was compared. We also identified how outcomes in speech,,performance could be predicted according to the causes of hearing loss. Results: The duration of hearing deficit was significantly related with speech performance after CI (the poor performance group: 24.44±19.43, the good performance group: 13.86±15.12, p<0.015*). Significant differences were not found between the two groups for the other factors (age at implantation, pre-operative residual hearing level, vestibular function, presence of associated symptoms (tinnitus, dizziness), education, region of residence (urban/rural), presence of job, and comorbidities). In the case of hearing loss caused by sudden hearing loss, Meniere's disease, otitis media, and otosclerosis, they were similarly distributed between two groups. Traumatic and drug induced hearing losses are usually found in the good performance group. The hearing losses due to unknown origin, presbycusis, and meningitis were mainly distributed in the poor performance group. Conclusions: Better prognosis in the elderly with CI can be expected in patients with short duration of hearing loss. Age at implantation, residual hearing level, and other known individual factors did not significantly influence on speech outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is mounting evidence that healthy living contributes to healthy hearing. Diet, as documented with the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), is a critical factor influencing hearing status over a lifetime. Other healthy lifestyle choices, such as regular vigorous exercise, not smoking, and consistent use of hearing protection during exposure to high intensity noise or music, also contribute importantly to preservation of good hearing. In addition, hearing impairment in adults is associated with a long list of common chronic diseases, for example, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, kidney disease, sleep apnea, and dementia. Conduct a literature search of 'comorbidity' and 'hearing loss' and you will find that the topic is attracting considerable clinical attention and research focus. Five key steps in practicing preventive audiology will be reviewed: 1) Obtaining a comprehensive history including medical conditions and life style factors related to hearing loss; 2) Assessment with a diagnostic test battery that includes procedures with proven sensitivity to subtle auditory dysfunction (e.g., otoacoustic emissions, speech perception in noise tests); 3) Adequate patient counseling about the connection between healthy hearing and life style/healthy living, including strategies for hearing protection; 4) Audiological management to enhance communication, and 5) Close and consistent communication and management coordination with primary care physicians. This presentation offers a clinically feasible approach to maintaining healthy hearing, preventing hearing loss, and promoting quality of life from youth to advanced age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Bilateral cochlear implants (CI) are the standard treatment for bilaterally deaf children, but it is unclear how much the second CI can be delayed in sequential bilateral CI. We investigated the performances of sequential CI to answer this question. Study Design: Retrospective case series review. Setting: Tertiary referral center. Methods: We studied a cohort of congenitally deaf children (n = 73) who underwent sequential CI without any inner ear anomaly or combined disabilities. Hearing threshold levels and speech perception were evaluated by aided pure tone audiometry and Asan-Samsung Korean word recognition test. The scores were analyzed by the ages at surgery and compared among the different age groups. Results: When the second CI was performed before 3.5 years (the optimal period for the first CI), the second CI scores (96.9%) were comparable to the first CI scores. Although the first CI scores were ≥80% when the first CI was implanted before the age of 7 years, the second CI scores were ≥80% when the second CI was implanted before the age of 12-13 years. The hearing threshold levels were not different regardless of the ages and between the first and second CIs. Conclusion: Our cohort demonstrated that the second CI showed comparable results to the first CI when implanted before 3.5 years, suggesting that optimal periods for the first CI and the second CI are same. However, the sensitive period (12-13 years) for the second CI with good scores (≥80%) was much longer than that (7 years) of the first CI, suggesting that the first CI prolongs the sensitive period for the second CI. The second CI should be implanted early, but considered even at a later age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Intellectual ability is a crucial factor in the outcome of a cochlear implant, and Social maturity score (SMS) is an indirect predictor of intellectual capacity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of SMS on cochlear implant and clinical significance in children with syndromes or disabilities. Methods: This study included children who underwent cochlear implant before seven years and diagnosed with various syndromes or disabilities during the preoperative examination. We analyzed the score of SMS and result of a cochlear implant by retrospective chart review. Results: We analyzed data from a total of 36 pediatric patients with cochlear implants diagnosed various syndromes or disabilities. Mean operation age was 2.5±1.4 years, and mean follow up period was 53.5±39.6 months. Mean SMS score was 70.4±29.2, and 20 patients (55.6%) showed a deterioration of SMS. Sixteen patients (44.4%) were normal, 11 (30.1%) were mild (50-69), 4 (11.1%) were moderate (35-49), 4 (11.1%) were severe (20-34), and 1 (2.8%) was profound (<20). Mean MAIS (Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale) and CAP (Categories of Auditory performance) of mild to moderate SMS deterioration group (Group 2) were 69.6±27.4 and 3.9±1.7, that was not significantly inferior to that of normal SMS group (Group 1). Mean MAIS and CAP of the severe to profound SMS deterioration group (Group 3) were 74.6±23.5 and 3.4±1.4. Although CAP of Group 3 was significantly lower than that of Group 1 (5.2±2.1, p=0.05), MAIS of Group 3 was not inferior to that of Group 1 or Group 2, and MAIS and CAP of Group 3 showed gradual improvement after the cochlear implant. Conclusion: Children with syndromes or disabilities frequently showed SMS deterioration. MAIS and CAP were not worse in SMS deteriorated patients, and gradual auditory improvement also detected even in the severe to profound SMS deterioration group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To analyze characteristics and propose mechanisms of FNS (Facial Nerve Stimulation) in cochlear implant surgeries. Thirty-two ears from 29 patients with FNS were evaluated from among 1151 ears which received a cochlear implant between April 1999 and July 2016. Locations of electrodes involved with FNS, presence and types of cochlear anomalies, presence of cochleo-facial dehiscence, and the current levels were analyzed. The current levels were compared to those of age- and sex-matched control group. Incidence of FNS was 2.8% (32/1151), and it was higher in ears with a cochlear anomaly (6.4%, 25/391) than in those without an anomaly (0.9%, 7/760). Patients without an anomaly showed two types of FNS: FNS at apical electrodes related to cochleo-facial dehiscence with low current levels, and FNS at basal electrodes with high current levels and partial insertion of electrodes. Patients with an anomaly showed a third type of FNS at most electrodes with high current levels, which was the most common type in patients with a common cavity or narrowing of the bony cochlear nerve canal. Facial nerve stimulation occurred at various current levels and locations of electrodes by different mechanisms related to incomplete insertion of electrodes, cochleo-facial dehiscence, and types of cochlear anomalies. Our findings might provide insight for preventing facial nerve stimulation when performing cochlear implant surgeries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Bimodal amplification shows better cognition of sounds through the improvement of head shadow effect, binaural squelch effect and binaural summation effect. In patients received unilateral cochlear implantation, the impact of hearing aids in the contralateral ear may depend on the residual hearing level, duration of hearing aid use, and others. In this study, we collected patients with bimodal amplification and aimed to evaluate the factors related to the hearing performance. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included forty-nine patients who used cochlear implantation in one ear and a hearing aid in the contralateral ear for more than one year. Hearing level, an inner ear anomaly, and benefit of amplification were collected. A subjective benefit of amplification was measured by the Korean version of the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (KSSQ). K-SSQ score was calculated by the summation of each point of 12 questions (-5 ~ +5), and +24 points were used to be a cut off value of positive gain. Results: The average age of cochlear implantation is 6.7 years old. Thirty-six out of 49 (73.5%) showed a positive gain in K-SSQ when the hearing aids were used in the presence of cochlear implantation. Monosyllabic word recognition was better in the bimodal stimulation (8.4% increase). K-SSQ score showed a significant correlation with the low-frequency hearing level with contralateral cochlear implantation only and with the hearing level at 250 and 500Hz with bimodal amplification. There was also a significant correlation between the speech discrimination score and the K-SSQ score after the bimodal amplification. K-SSQ score showed no significant correlation with age at implantation, duration of use of cochlear implantation, and duration of use of hearing aid. Conclusions: A subjective benefit of amplification has a correlation with the low-frequency residual hearing level in the ear with hearing aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To investigate the diameter of bony cochlear nerve canal (BCNC) as a prog-nostic value of cochlear implantation in children. Subjects and Methods: We collected 327 prelingual deaf children who received coch-lear implantation before five years of age. We reviewed the preoperative temporal bone com-puted tomography (TBCT) and divided into three groups according to the diameter of BCNC: narrow BCNC (Group 1), normal (Group 2), and other anomalies (Group 3). Narrow BCNC group was divided into three groups according to the degree of stenosis: complete stenosis (Group A), less than 0.8mm (Group B), and from 0.8mm to 1.4mm (Group C). For each group, postoperative auditory performances are analyzed according to the diameter of BCNC using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Results: Among the 327 children, 38 children (11.6%) were found to have narrow BCNC (Group 1), 185 children (56.6%) had normal BCNC and inner ear structure (Group 2), and 104 children (31.8%) had other anomalies (Group 3). Group 1 showed less significant improvement in Category of Audiological Performance (CAP) score compared with Group 2 and Group 3. Open-set monosyllabic words test was more deficient in Group 1 than Group 2 and Group 3. Open-set sentence identification test was lower in Group 1 than Group 2 and Group 3. Among the 38 children with narrow BCNC (Group 1), five children had complete stenotic BCNC (Group A), 21 children had BCNC less than 0.8mm (Group B), and 12 children's BCNC di-ameter were from 0.8mm to 1.4mm (Group C). The CAP score of Group A was poorer than the Group B and Group C, and CAP score of Group B was also lower than Group C. Conclusion: The improvement of auditory performance was limited in children with nar-row BCNC and the narrower the BCNC, the more severe the limitation. However, gradual im-provement can be expected. Through these, even children with narrow BCNC need early coch-lear implantation and rehabilitation. This study evidenced the speech perception performance in children having BCNC, which are useful information for preoperative counseling of CI candi-dates and family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We investigated the effects of preoperative factors on outcomes of CIs in postlingually deaf adults using a general linear model (GLM) and a nonlinear Regression Forest Regression (RFR) model. Study Design: Postoperative monosyllabic word recognition scores (WRS) served as the dependent variable to predict. Predictors included duration of deafness, duration of auditory deprivation (duration of deafness without hearing aid use), age at implantation, preoperative hearing threshold and monosyllabic WRS in quiet. Patients: Postlingually deaf adults (n = 120) who received CI, which was fully inserted, without any inner ear abnormalities or combined disabilities and with follow-up of more than 2 years. Methods: The prediction accuracy was evaluated with the mean absolute error (MAE) as well as the Pearson's correlation coefficient between the true WRS and predicted WRS. To determine the importance of predictors, we measured increase in the MAE when a given variable was omitted in the regression model relative to when it was included. We used a leave-one-out cross-validation to avoid bias related to inclusion of the test data into the training procedure. Results: The fitting of GLMs resulted in prediction performance with correlation coefficient r=0.7 and MAE of 15.6+/-9.5). On the other hand, the RFR machine learning yielded superior prediction performance to the GLM with r=0.96 and MAE of 6.1+/-4.7 (t=9.8; p<0.00001). Computation of the importance showed that the contribution of DAD to the prediction was the highest (MAE increase when omitted: 12.1), followed by duration of deafness (8.6) and AgeCI (8.3). In a subsequent analysis, a subgroup of patients with DAD ≤ 10 years showed higher postCI WRS and smaller variation than those with DAD > 10 years. Conclusion: The current study on clinical utility of machine learning on auditory outcomes of CIs in postlingually deaf adults demonstrated that an advanced nonlinear classifier yields a highly accurate prediction ability with an error of +/-6 in WRS. Our finding also suggests that CI should be implemented no later than a sensitive period (10 years) after deafness to lead to successful outcome. Finally, our machine learning technique has the potential for patient counseling and predicting benefit from CI to patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]