Speech perception ability in a patient with a 8-channel auditory brainstem implant

• Published in: Nippon Jibi Inkoka Gakkai Kaiho Vol. 104; no. 5; p. 510
• Main Authors: Kumakawa, K, Motizuki, Y, Takahashi, N, Takeda, H, Muto, N, Yamane, M, Seki, Y, Takemori, S, Komatsuzaki, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan 01-05-2001
• Subjects: Adult; Cochlear Nucleus; Electrodes, Implanted; Humans; Male; Speech Perception - physiology
• ISSN: 0030-6622
• DOI: 10.3950/jibiinkoka.104.510

Auditory brainstem implant (ABI) is a central prosthesis that directly stimulates the cochlear nucleus in the brainstem for those who have interrupted auditory nerves and cannot benefit from the cochlear implantation. Speech perception in a recipient of the Nuclues 8 channel ABI, the first in Japan, is reported. A 25-year-old man with bilateral acoustic nerve tumors postlingually deafened due to tumor resection received auditory sensations with 5 channels. The correct answer using a coding strategy, SPEAK, was 35% for 5 vowels and 36% for 5 monosyllables. The use of ABI also improved his lip-reading ability on monosyllables and open-set words. This indicated that he benefited from ABI, although it was limited. Even after 1 year and 3 months of follow-up, he had no serious side effects such an infection or implant rejection.