Middle-term cochlear implant use in case of asymmetric hearing loss and single-sided deafness: A retrospective single-centre cohort study

Key points: (no abstract required) • Cochlear implant effectiveness in asymmetric hearing loss and single-sided deafness is well established, but rarely covered by health care systems. • Continuation of wearing the implant beyond the first year could be considered as an indirect indicator of subjective benefit. • Percentage of cochlear implant abandon at 5-years post-implantation was very low in patients with asymmetric hearing loss and single-sided deafness. • High education level, low audibility and good unaided speech perceptions scores of the contralateral acoustic-hearing ear were positive prognostic factors of CI use. • The low percentage of non-users is an additional strong argument to recommend cochlear implantation in patients with asymmetric hearing loss and single-sided deafness, on the ear with a profound hearing loss, especially in case of frail contralateral acoustic-hearing ear.