Auditory brainstem implant in auditory rehabilitation of patients with neurofibromatosis type 2: Hannover programme

An auditory brainstem implant (ABI) is indicated for patients suffering fro m bilateral neural deafness. The most affected patients are those with neur ofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). An implantation is possible either at the same time as, or after, surgical removal of an acoustic neuroma. This paper demo nstrates the results of eight out of 11 patients with NF2, seven of whom re ceived an ABI after tumour removal. Preoperatively, all of them were deaf. Post-operatively, the first fitting served to determine the individual stim ulation parameters for each electrode. The stimulation-dependent side-effec ts were eliminated by reducing the stimulus intensity without causing negat ive effects on the hearing with the ABI. Only in one case was an open set u nderstanding achieved within the first year. However, all patients had a be tter speech understanding when they combined their hearing with the ABI and their lip-reading abilities. There is no correlation between the performan ce with ABI and the tumour size or the duration of deafness.