Postoperative Auditory Progress in Cochlear-Implanted Children With Auditory Neuropathy.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the effect of auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) on postoperative auditory perception and listening difficulties in pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients.

Method: The Children's Auditory Perception Test (CAPT) assesses auditory perception skills, and the Children's Home Inventory of Listening Difficulties (CHILD) Scale evaluates daily listening difficulties. The study involved pediatric CI recipients (n = 40) aged between 5 and 7 years, with and without diagnosis of ANSD. The research ensured homogeneity across various factors, including chronological age, age at diagnosis, age at initial implantation, bilateral simultaneous surgery, etiologies of hearing loss, and family education level.

Results: The findings have demonstrated that children without ANSD exhibited better performance in integrating visual-auditory stimuli and overall listening performance, distant sound source scores, and noisy environment scores (respectively p = .047, p = .001, p = .028, and p = .010). Additionally, children with better speech perception also have a better ability to integrate audiovisual stimuli (p = .005, r = .438).

Conclusions: There are significant differences in postoperative listening skills and auditory perceptions between children with and without an ANSD who have CIs. Accordingly, children without an ANSD perform better.