Overview

Cochlear Implant Patient Assessment is an invaluable clinical reference for every cochlear implant audiologist and speech-language pathologist working with the adult or pediatric populations.

This unique text is designed to provide information on best practices assessment of implant candidacy as well as the postoperative assessment of performance over the long term. This book is written for audiologists, speech-language pathologists and deaf educators to serve as a clinical handbook on the assessment tools and therapeutic intervention that are critical during the pre- and post-implant periods. Given that the numbers of both adult and pediatric cochlear implant recipients continue to increase, more and more clinicians will be expected to gain and maintain a level of experience surrounding the clinical management of this population. Though this book contains useful information for even the most seasoned clinicians, it will serve an especially important role in the education and training of students and clinicians being introduced to cochlear implant clinical practice. Having an experienced audiologist and speech-language pathologist authoring this work unites the inter-disciplinary nature of this practice.

Audience

Primary Subject: Audiology / Cochlear Implants
Secondary Subject: Speech and Language Pathology / Hearing Sciences
Audience Level: Professional/Textbook - Desk Copy

• FDA candidacy for cochlear implantation: history and process
  • Brief history of clinical trials with cochlear implants in the US and abroad
  • Process through which FDA approval is sought after and ultimately granted
  • Evolution of cochlear implant criteria for cochlear implants
  • Current cochlear implant criteria
    • Adults
      • Advanced Bionics
      • Cochlear Corporation
      • Med El
    • Children
      • Advanced Bionics
      • Cochlear Corporation
      • Med El
• Elements of preoperative assessment: Adults
  • Audiologic assessment
    • Sensation vs. perception
    • Hearing aid verification
    • Speech perception testing
      • Metrics
      • Presentation
    • Imaging studies
    • Medical evaluation
    • Utility of predictive variables for postoperative outcomes
      • Role of audiologic variables
        • Thresholds and severity of hearing loss
        • Etiology
      • Cochlear/neural structures
      • Preoperative speech perception performance
      • Cochlear dead regions
      • Cognitive issues
      • Unknowns
• Elements of preoperative assessment: Children
  • Audiologic assessment
    • Sensation vs. perception
    • Hearing aid verification
    • Parental questionnaires
    • Speech perception testing for the older child
      • Metrics
      • Presentation
  • Speech/language evaluation(s)
  • Speech/language therapy
  • Early Intervention
  • Imaging studies
  • Medical Evaluation
  • Utility of predictive variables for postoperative outcomes
    • Role of audiologic variables
      • Thresholds and severity of hearing loss
      • Etiology
    • Cochlear/neural structures
    • Co-morbities
    • Parental/familial goals for child
    • Parental/familial compliance with recommendation schedule(s)
    • Unknowns
• The role of the speech/language pathologist in the assessment of pediatric cochlear implant candidacy
  Ruth Stoeckel, PhD, CCC-SLP
  • Evaluation tools
    • Infants
    • Toddlers
    • Preschoolers
    • School-age children
  • Therapy
    • Following identification
    • Following fitting of hearing aids
    • Following evaluation
    • Setting a precedent for on-going therapeutic intervention
  • Collaborative relationship with early intervention system and educators
• Non-traditional candidates for cochlear implantation
  • Adults
    • Degree of hearing loss
    • Asymmetry
    • Speech perception performance
    • Etiologies
    • Insurance issues
  • Children
    • Degree of hearing loss
    • Asymmetry
    • Auditory progress
    • Age
    • Speech perception performance for the older child
    • Etiologies
    • Insurance issues
• Assessment of postoperative outcomes: Adults
  • Audiometric testing
  • Speech perception testing
  • Functional assessment
  • Aural rehabilitation
• Audiologic assessment of postoperative outcomes: Children
  • Audiometric testing
  • Parental questionnaires
  • Speech perception
• The role of the speech-language pathologist in the post-operative assessment of children
  Ruth Stoeckel, PhD, CCC-SLP
  • Evaluation tools
    • Infants
    • Toddlers
    • Preschoolers
    • School-age children
  • Therapy/habilitation/rehabilitation
  • Collaborative relationship with early intervention system and educators
• Assessing pre- and postoperative outcomes for adults and children: What are we missing?
  • Potential use of physiologic metrics
    • Biomarkers of cochlear implant candidacy
    • Biomarkers for determining candidacy for a second implant
  • Potential use of auditory evoked potentials
    • Determining cochlear implant candidacy
    • Determining candidacy for a second implant
  • Correlation between objective metrics and patient/family satisfaction

About The Author

René Gifford, PhD

René Gifford, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University and the Director of the Cochlear Implant Program and Pediatric Audiology at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center. She is also the Director of the Cochlear Implant Research Laboratory at Vanderbilt, where she carries out her NIH funded research on combined electric and acoustic stimulation (EAS). She received her undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees at Arizona State University and her M.S. at Vanderbilt University.

She completed a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Cochlear Implant Laboratory at Arizona State under the direction of Michael Dorman, Ph.D.

Dr. Gifford has authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles, multiple book chapters, has delivered over 50 national and international presentations. When she’s not in the lab or clinic, you will likely find her with her husband and three sons at the skate park, football, or baseball field.

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