Evaluation of quality of life in patients after cochlear implantation surgery in 2014-2017

Introduction: Profound hearing loss significantly affects the quality of life of deaf people as well as their families. Observation of the benefit from the use of cochlear implants in deaf patients allows to assess the success of treatment with this method and its impact on the quality of life of these patients. The aim of this study was to determine the quality of life in patient after the cochlear implantation in the material of Department of Phoniatrics and Audiology of the Medical University in Poznań. Material and methods: The study involved implanted patients who voluntarily joined to the project entitled "Observational study of the implanted patient (Cochlear-IROS)". It has a prospective character, it is an international and long-term study, covering the observation of patients up to three years after implantation. Standardized HUI and SSQ questionnaires were used. 70 patients were included in the analysis, the mean age at the time of the cochlear implantation was 47.6 years. In the research group there were 33 men and 37 women. In the whole group, the patients' age at implantation was at least 18 years, max. 80 years. Results: The results of the SSQ questionnaire, which deals with the self-assessment of hearing ability in everyday situations, indicate that in the subjective assessment of patients one year after surgery the speech hearing improved by 77%, spatial hearing by 84%, and the quality of hearing by 49%. The general quality of life before the first connection of the sound processor according to the HUI questionnaire, the patients rated at 0.49 (0-1 scale, where 0 - corresponds to the death condition and 1 - full health). After one year from the implantation, this rating increased to 0.56. Conclusions: The implantation of the cochlear implant significantly increases the patient's quality of life, its physical and emotional functioning. Statistically significant better self-assessment of patients mainly concerned hearing speech and spatial hearing - especially after 1 year of connecting the speech processor.