Auditory Skills in Cochlear Implanted Children with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder

Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is a term to describe the auditory characteristics of patients who exhibit normal outer hair cell function and aberrant or disordered neural conduction in other sites along the auditory pathway. The management of children with ANSD is a controversial topic. It is the intention of this study, to investigate the effects of the cochlear implant on the auditory skills of these children. In a cross-sectional analytic study, eight cochlear implanted children with ANSD and eight implanted children with profound sensory-neural hearing loss (SNHL) were selected to participate in this study, with an age ranging between 4.4 to 7.2 years of age and 4.5 to 7.2 years of age, respectively. There was a significant correlation between the age of the hearing loss diagnosed group and the score levels in the auditory skill cases (P=0.012) and the control-groups (P=0.011). All children had a delayed response as compared to the normal hearing children in the investigated skill levels, while no significant differences were noted in the cochlear implanted children with and without ANSD (P=0.877). There were no significant dissimilarities among the auditory skills of the children with ANSD and their matches which indicate that the cochlear implantation results in the synchronous neural activity provided a coherent electrical stimulation; therefore, the hearing function will be improved.