April 2008: Sound Partnership Newsletter

For more than 25 years, Cochlear™ has delivered unsurpassed hearing performance with the most reliable implant devices on the market.

Dear Colleague,
We are excited to share with you the April issue of the Cochlear™ newsletter.  We look forward to seeing you in Charlotte and San Diego over the next couple of weeks.

Hear Always for Baha:

Cochlear is proud to announce the inclusion of Baha® into the Hear Always initiative. As of April 1, 2008, we will implement troubleshooting and sound processor repair for all Baha recipients from participating clinics. This program is designed to create a partnership between your center and Cochlear.  If you are already a Hear Always clinic, please start referring your Baha recipients to Cochlear's designated Hear Always service line.

What does Hear Always mean for you?

• Cochlear will now have the ability to deal directly with patients on all Baha Repairs.
  Baha recipients receive direct technical support for external equipment, accessories and assistive listening needs.
• Recipients will receive a pre-addressed, pre-paid envelope and detailed instructions on how to send in their device for repair.
• More timely repairs means less time spent troubleshooting in your clinic.
• Cochlear takes on activities that are not typically reimbursed, which means better profitability for you.

Please contact your local Cochlear Representative to sign up with Hear Always.

Recent research:

In March we included a summary of the important Aschendorff paper: Quality Control After Insertion of the Nucleus Contour and Contour Advance Electrode in Adults. This month, we are including a summary of the Fraysse paper.  We hope you find the summary with key points useful.

Summary

Fraysse B, Macias A, Sterkers O, Burdo S, Ramsden R, Deguine O, Klenzner T, Lenarz T, Rodriguez M, Von Wallenberg E & Chris James C. Residual Hearing Conservation and Electroacoustic Stimulation with the Nucleus 24 Contour Advance Cochlear Implant. Otology & Neurotology, 27:624-633, 2006.

Objective of the Study

To study the conservation of residual hearing in recipients of the Nucleus 24 Contour
Advance cochlear implant and the benefits of combined electrical and acoustic stimulation.

Study Design

Adult recipients with residual hearing were implanted using soft surgery technique.
The soft surgery technique included a 1-1.2mm anterior-inferior cochleostomy with a 17mm insertion using the AOS technique.  Hearing thresholds were measured before and after surgery.  Patients with sufficient hearing post-operatively were fitted with an in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aid for electro-acoustic stimulation.

Key findings in the paper include:

This article is about the preservation of residual hearing in a large number of adults implanted with a full-length Cochlear Advance Electrode with AOS technique, and benefit derived from the use of residual ipsilateral residual hearing amplified with an ITE hearing aid.

• Of the 27 subjects implanted with a full-length array 10 (the “El-Ac” group) retained enough hearing for an ipsilateral hearing aid to be of sufficient benefit (no greater than 80 dBHL at 125 and 250 Hz, and no greater than 90 dBHL at 500 Hz).
• For 12 of the 27 subjects where there were no surgical deviations from a “soft surgical” approach was followed.  9 (75%) of the 12 retained hearing sufficient to fit a hearing aid.
• Long term data was available for 9 patients. Hearing was stable for 5 of these 9 after 13 mos.
• Of the subjects who had sufficient hearing to use electro-acoustic stimulation, mean performance on words in quiet and sentences in noise statistically improved.
• Subjects in the El-Ac group had similar CI only (ie. Not using acoustic hearing) performance to subjects who had lost residual hearing (“CI-only users”).
• 78% of the electro-acoustic subjects preferred a program where the CI provided only higher frequencies compared to typical CI frequencies.

Raise Your Hand 2 is Coming!

Better Speech & Hearing Month is a great opportunity to raise awareness of hearing loss and treatment options.  Building on the success of last year's 'Raise Your Hand' campaign, Cochlear will again use May to kick-off a public awareness and education campaign on hearing loss.

The campaign launches May 1, 2008 and will feature:

• Survey results that illustrate and reinforce the effects hearing loss can have on special moments and memories
• Media outreach with Emmy award-winning actress and singer, Kassie DePaiva of "One Life to Live" whose son was born deaf but can now hear with the help of a cochlear implant
• An update to the awareness website, www.raiseyourhand.info
• Awareness "Took Kits" for Cochlear Awareness Network volunteers

Raise Your Hand touched over 12 million people in 2007 - our goal in 2008 is 20 million!

Attached, please find a Better Speech & Hearing Month calendar for May which contains everyday ideas that can help promote awareness of hearing loss.  This was mailed to all Cochlear Awareness Network volunteers.  For more details, please visit www.cochlearamericas.com/awareness

Look for a further update in May with survey results!


Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Cochlear