Background: A prospective clinical study was conducted to investigate whether two different pharmacotherapy strategies of steroid administration impact hearing preservation in adult patients who underwent cochlear implantation with the Oticon Medical Neuro cochlear implant system.
Methods: Twenty nine adult participants were included. Pure tone audiometry was performed before implantation, during processor activation and 12 months after activation. There were three treatment groups: (1) intravenous steroid therapy (standard steroid therapy with dexamethasone administrated intravenously at the dose 0.1 mg/kg body mass twice a day); (2) combined oral and intravenous steroid therapy (extended steroid therapy with dexamethasone administrated intravenously at the dose 0.1 mg/kg b.m. twice a day and prednisone (orally) at the dose 1 mg/kg body mass/24 h), and (3) no steroid therapy (a control group). Patients' hearing thresholds before implantation were on average 103 dB HL, 89 dB HL, and 93 dB HL, respectively.
Results: Deterioration of hearing thresholds was observed in all three patients' groups. Twelve months after surgery the patients with and without steroid therapy had similar hearing thresholds.
Conclusions: The steroid regimen used in this study did not play a significant role in patients with non-functional residual hearing, who underwent cochlear implantation with the Oticon Medical Neuro cochlear implant system.
Keywords: cochlear implants; partial deafness treatment; steroids.