Objective: The aim of this research is to analyse and compare the psychophysical tests in different age of patients with a cochlear implant.
Method: One hundred and seventy patients with Nucleus CI24M cochlear implant system participated in this study. The patients were divided into four groups according to their age. They were group A (<3 year), B(3-<6 year) C(6-12 year) and D(>12 year). The psychophysical tests included T and C-Level evaluation.
Result: C-Levels of each electrode (except electrode No. 20) were significantly different between group A and D at the time of one month after switch-on (P<0.01, P<0.05 for the No. 2, 18, 19, 21, 22 electrode). The normalized differences between used C-Levels and C-Levels for group D were significantly higher than the other three groups at the switch-on session (P<0.01, P<0.05 between group D and C). The normalized differences between used C-Levels and C-Levels were significantly different for the group A and D at one week after first programming session (P<0.05).
Conclusion: T and C-Level for different age groups were different. The normalized differences between used C-Levels and C-Levels were significantly different among the four groups in the few weeks after switch-on.