Effects of auditory rehabilitation with cochlear implant on tinnitus prevalence and distress, health-related quality of life, subjective hearing and psychological comorbidities: Comparative analysis of patients with asymmetric hearing loss (AHL), double-sided (bilateral) deafness (DSD), and single-sided (unilateral) deafness (SSD)

Heidi Olze; Manuel Christoph Ketterer; Dominik Péus; Sophia Marie Häußler; Lynn Hildebrandt; Stefan Gräbel; Agnieszka J Szczepek

doi:10.3389/fneur.2022.1089610

Effects of auditory rehabilitation with cochlear implant on tinnitus prevalence and distress, health-related quality of life, subjective hearing and psychological comorbidities: Comparative analysis of patients with asymmetric hearing loss (AHL), double-sided (bilateral) deafness (DSD), and single-sided (unilateral) deafness (SSD)

Front Neurol. 2023 Jan 12:13:1089610. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.1089610. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Heidi Olze¹, Manuel Christoph Ketterer², Dominik Péus³, Sophia Marie Häußler⁴, Lynn Hildebrandt¹, Stefan Gräbel¹, Agnieszka J Szczepek¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
² Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
³ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
⁴ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Skull Base Center, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Abstract

Introduction: Auditory rehabilitation with a cochlear implant (CI), in many cases, positively impacts tinnitus. However, it is unclear if the tinnitus-related benefit of CI is equal for patients with various indications for CI. Therefore, this study aimed to determine differences in tinnitus prevalence and distress, health-related quality of life, subjective hearing, perceived stress, and psychological comorbidities between patients diagnosed with asymmetric hearing loss (AHL), single-sided (unilateral) deafness (SSD), and double-sided (bilateral) deafness (DSD) before and six months after cochlear implantation.

Methods: One hundred-one CI candidates were included in this prospective study (39 AHL patients, 23 DSD patients, and 39 SSD patients). The patients completed questionnaires measuring tinnitus distress, health-related quality of life, subjective hearing, perceived stress, and psychological comorbidities before and 6 months after CI.

Results: The prevalence of tinnitus in the entire cohort (80.2% before CI) decreased 6 months after CI to 71.3%. The DSD group had the lowest tinnitus prevalence at both time points. The degree of tinnitus-induced distress decreased significantly in all three groups after CI. Differences in quality of life, subjective hearing, and psychological comorbidities between the groups at the study onset disappeared after CI. Significant correlations existed between anxiety, depression, and tinnitus distress in AHL and SSD but not in DSD patients before and after CI.

Discussion: Our results demonstrate significant differences between the three groups of CI candidates, which might affect the implantation outcome. These differences suggest a need for personalized psychological counseling during the auditory rehabilitation process, focusing on anxiety and depressive symptoms for SSD and AHL patients.

Keywords: asymmetric hearing loss; auditory rehabilitation; cochlear implant; double-sided deafness; single-sided deafness; tinnitus.