gms | German Medical Science

80th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

20.05. - 24.05.2009, Rostock

Evaluation of HiRes and HiRes 120 in a cross-over study from first fitting onwards

Meeting Abstract

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 80th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Rostock, 20.-24.05.2009. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2009. Doc09hno008

doi: 10.3205/09hno008, urn:nbn:de:0183-09hno0083

Published: July 22, 2009

© 2009 Brendel et al.
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Outline

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Objective: The strategy HiRes 120 is supported by the behind-the-ear processor Harmony. This investigation examined subjects' performance with both the HiRes and HiRes 120 strategy using the Harmony processor in new users, following a cross-over study design.

Method: Twenty-three subjects were enrolled in the study. The participants had a mean age of 49.4 years (29.5 to 70.8 years), a mean duration of deafness of 3.3 years (0 to 40.5 years) and had no experience with any auditory implant system before. The group was divided into two sub-groups: Group I starting with HiRes at first fitting; and Group II starting with HiRes 120. Every three months subjects were converted to the other strategy, respectively. Evaluations were performed prior to each strategy change via speech perception tests, psychophysical tests and questionnaires.

Results: Fourteen subjects have already passed their 6-months appointment. Subjects in Group I showed an improvement of 16% in their speech understanding using the HSM sentence test in noise (10dB SNR) between their 3-month appointment with HiRes and 6-months appointment with HiRes 120. Group II improved by only 8%, using the strategies in reversed order.

Discussion: There is an overlap of learning effect and effect of the speech coding strategy; therefore the results need to be evaluated in a comparison between the two groups. When switching from HiRes to HiRes 120, Group I showed results which were better than just the learning effect. Group II showed results less than the expected learning effect, after being switched from Hires 120 to HiRes.

Conclusions: The data of the first 6 months indicate a benefit for HiRes 120 compared to the standard HiRes. HiRes 120 did not reveal any specific difficulties when used from first fitting onwards.