Cochlear implants (CIs) are a common therapy for severe to profound hearing loss.
In the absence of additional medical requirements, patients may choose deliberately
between different implant systems. Therefore, a detailed counselling is required.
The aim of the study is the evaluation of decision criteria of patients that are rated
as relevant during the selection of the CI device. The evaluation was carried out
via questionnaires at different time points: before implantation, after completion
of the first fitting and after 6 months CI experience. They included characteristics
of the implant, sound processor, accessories and different hearing program parameters.
The relevance of the particular aspects for choosing an implant system was assessed
using Likert scaling with four levels (very important to unimportant). The results
showed that the reliability of the implant was rated as the most important at all
times of examination (152-158 out of 164 points). The wearing comfort of the sound
processor (150-154) and the availability of noise reduction (145-147) were also assessed
as very relevant. Preoperative, the length of the electrode array (70) was rated as
least relevant, postoperative the availability of swimming protection (79) was least
important. The shape of the electrode was found to be of little relevance to CI system
selection at all times of examination (74-84). Some parameters were rated more important
postoperatively than preoperatively without CI experience. These included directional
microphone technology (95/125) and setting options via the remote control (86/123).
The findings of the study enable the identification of patient-relevant counselling
content, so that the counselling process can be optimized considering individual requirements.
