March 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 March issue of the Cochlear newsletter below. We are looking forward to seeing you all at the spring tradeshows.

Technology Spotlight
New evidence confirms the importance of a perimodiolar electrode design and surgical technique. The recent papers by Skinner, Aschendorff, Fraysse, Adunka & Roland are showing that patients with the right electrode in the right place experience:

• Reduced trauma to the cochlea
• Improved speech understanding
• Increased chance of preserving residual hearing*

Over the next few months we will provide you with summaries of these important papers. Below is the summary of the Aschendorff paper.

Summary:

Aschendorff A, Kromeier J, Klenzner T, and Laszig R. Quality Control After Insertion of the Nucleus Contour and Contour Advance Electrode in Adults. Ear & Hearing, 28:75S-79S, 2007. Objective of the Study To evaluate the quality of insertion including electrode position of Contour and Contour Advance electrodes in adult recipients. Study Design Evaluation of electrode position in adult recipients using research based rotational tomography technique. Electrode position was identified as being in the Scala Tympani (ST), Scala Vestibuli (SV) or partly in both scala. The study population included 21 recipients with Contour electrode and 22 recipients with Contour Advance electrode. Speech test results were measured and a correlation performed with position of the electrode. Key findings in the paper include: One large clinic with highly experienced implanting surgeons measured a very high proportion of unintended scala vestibuli (SV) insertions due to cochleostomy location and scalar dislocations from ST to SV due to electrode mechanics in patients using the Contour electrode. By observing these results the clinic adjusted technique and dramatically improved the proportion of insertions into the scala tympani (ST). The use of the Contour Advance electrode with Soft Surgery technique including AOS further increased the ability to achieve ST insertions. After finding a high rate of SV insertions with the Contour electrode, the cochleostomy position was changed to a more inferior position to ensure electrodes were inserted into the ST. Contour Advance electrode (with soft-tip) inserted with Advance Off Stylet (AOS) technique increased ST placement further and reduced the chance of scalar displacements. ST insertion gave statistically significant improved speech performance over SV insertion.

Rehabilitation
Speech Sounds: A Guide for Parents and Professionals
We are delighted to announce that Cochlear Americas has published a new rehab tool. Developed for us by Nancy Caleffe-Schenck and Dian Baker, both of whom are Auditory Verbal Therapists serving many families of children with cochlear implants, Speech Sounds was designed to be used by professionals and families of young children (1 to 5 years) who are deaf and hard of hearing, to promote spoken language development.

The guide consists of units for 20 English consonant sounds that can be used by therapists or teachers to plan therapy sessions and classroom activities. Parents are encouraged to use the units as a resource for active and effective home carry-over as part of therapy with a professional. Each unit includes child friendly words, daily routines, activities, books, games, songs and more.

We recommend viewing two archived HOPE Online seminars that introduce the use of the guide: Sound Speech for Speech Sounds (2007) and More Sound Speech for Speech Sounds (2007). These seminars are free and offer CEUs.

Printed copies of Speech Sounds are available for therapists or teachers who will use the product regularly. Speech Sounds is also available online, and we anticipate that most users will utilize the web version. We ask that therapists encourage parents to access Speech Sounds via the website and download a particular unit as part of the child's therapy lesson that week.

Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Cochlear Americas