Cochlear implant?

[doc2x]

250 500 1K 1.5K 2K 3K 4K 6K 8K
R 50 45 55 65 75 110 105 105 100
L 70 55 80 85 80 80 100 105 100

Speech recognition R 36% L62% Age 79

I was ready to get a CI and went to see a highly recommended local ENT surgeon. For some reason he did not seem to be too eager to do the procedure, and seemed to imply that reprogramming and adjustment of my Phonak Naida's would be almost as beneficial as a CI. His associate audiologist did the reprogramming ($300), and there was moderate improvement, but I still find speech recognition unsatisfactory, particularly in groups and with significant background noise. I have looked at the articles on CI in the elderly and all indicate significant speech recognition improvement, but I can't find any comparison to previous HA use.

Please advise.

[DocAudio]

250 500 1K 1.5K 2K 3K 4K 6K 8K
R 50 45 55 65 75 110 105 105 100
L 70 55 80 85 80 80 100 105 100

Speech recognition R 36% L62% Age 79

I was ready to get a CI and went to see a highly recommended local ENT surgeon. For some reason he did not seem to be too eager to do the procedure, and seemed to imply that reprogramming and adjustment of my Phonak Naida's would be almost as beneficial as a CI. His associate audiologist did the reprogramming ($300), and there was moderate improvement, but I still find speech recognition unsatisfactory, particularly in groups and with significant background noise. I have looked at the articles on CI in the elderly and all indicate significant speech recognition improvement, but I can't find any comparison to previous HA use.

Please advise.

Here are the candidacy guidelines for Adults according to Cochlear (maker of the CI):

Moderate to profound SNHL in both ears
Limited benefit from amplification defined by preoperative test scores of a 50% sentence recognition in the ear to be implanted and <60% in the opposite ear or binaurally (this is with a hearing aid, not unaided scores)


Simply put, your hearing is probably too good to be considered appropriate for implantation. When you get the CI, there is no going back, if it doesn't work then you are stuck with a completely dead ear. It's a pretty big risk when you have someone who can benefit from a traditional hearing aid, as long as they are understanding at least half of what it being said.

For every person who reports amazing success with a CI, there is someone who didn't have any improvement. I have 2 women I referred out for a CI and one didn't notice any improvement, the other one only noticed a marginal improvement. Given those risks, and the risks of the surgery itself, unless the patient is getting essentially zip from a HA, the risks don't outweigh the possible benefits.

It's usually thought that even a HA that has limited success will sound better and function better than a CI.

[prodigyplace]

Adding to what DocAudio said, here (http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2011/03/18/questions_on_the_host_s_hearing) is one person's experience with CIs.

Although I am not a professional, I think hearing aids should be a first option.