Hearing Preservation and Speech Outcomes After Cochlear Implantation in Meniere's Disease

Objectives/Hypothesis To evaluate speech perception outcomes and hearing preservation after cochlear implantation in patients with Meniere's disease (MD). Study Design Retrospective chart review. Methods Fifty‐one adult patients, accounting for a total of 63 implants, with MD treated at a tertiary care center were included in the study. Patients with unaided preoperative air‐conduction thresholds ≤80 dB at 250 Hz were included in hearing preservation analyses. The primary outcome measure was Consonant‐Nucleus‐Consonant (CNC) score. Hearing preservation was assessed as follows: 1) maintenance of functional hearing, defined as a postoperative unaided air‐conduction threshold ≤80 dB at 250 Hz and 2) low‐frequency pure‐tone average (LFPTA) shift. Results Speech perception scores improved significantly postimplantation; specifically, the CNC mean score was 9% preoperatively and increased to 57% by 1 year postoperatively (P