Kj. Munro et al., AUDIOLOGICAL FINDINGS AFTER MULTICHANNEL COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION IN PATIENTS WITH MONDINI DYSPLASIA, British journal of audiology, 30(6), 1996, pp. 369-379
Mondini dysplasia is a congenital malformation of the inner ear. To da
te, five individuals with this malformation have received cochlear imp
lants at the South of England Cochlear Implant Centre. The aim of this
study was to review the audiological findings of these individuals af
ter implantation. The soundfield thresholds after implantation are in
the region of 30-40 dB (A). The results of suprathreshold speech recog
nition tasks show substantial variability in performance but this is n
o greater than that obtained from implant users with no malformation.
All individuals were able to detect and recognize a variety of environ
mental sounds that would previously have been inaudible. These finding
s, along with the reported improvement in quality of life, mean that M
ondini dysplasia is not a contra-indication for multichannel cochlear
implantation. This information will be useful to other centres when co
nsidering implantation in similar patients.