Multicenter U.S. Bilateral MED-EL Cochlear Implantation Study: Speech Perception over the First Year of Use

Objective: Binaural hearing has been shown to sup-port better speech perception in normal-hearing lis-teners than can be achieved with monaural stimulus presentation, particularly under noisy listening con-ditions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether bilateral electrical stimulation could confer similar benefits for cochlear implant listeners. Design: A total of 26 postlingually deafened adult patients with short duration of deafness were im-planted at five centers and followed up for 1 yr. Subjects received MED-EL COMBI 40 devices bilat-erally; in all but one case, implantation was per-formed in a single-stage surgery. Speech perception testing included CNC words in quiet and CUNY sen-tences in noise. Target speech was presented at th