We evaluated the benefits from bimodal stimulation in a group of 10 prelingually deafened adult cochlear implant users, submitted to unilateral cochlear implantation at the ENT Unit of the University of Pisa.
Of 10 patients, 9 decided to continue using bimodal stimulation and demonstrated improvements in speech perception both in quiet and in noise condition from bimodal hearing, in comparison to the cochlear implant alone condition.
Our results show that bimodal hearing offers some advantages in speech understanding in quiet and noise conditions also in prelingually deafened adults. Moreover, most of our patients reported advantages from bimodal hearing in localizing sound and in perceiving a more natural sound.