Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R García-Tapia.
We present a review of the current literature and our experience with distortion product otoacoustic emissions. They represent a new tool for the clinical study of deafness as shown and of the basic functional status of the cochlea.
From October 1989 to the end of 1991, 33 patients have received a Cochlear Implant Nucleus 22 Channel, that have been selected from over 150 patients that consulted the possibility of implantation. A cochlear implant program should count with a group of professionals of diverse areas, that work in coordination without losing contact with the rest of the member of the implant team. Cochlear Implant are considered an efficient technique in the treatment of profound neurosensorial deafness, in Pre and Postlinguistic patients. The results obtained have been better in the last group of patients, but results on the whole are considered satisfactory. In prelinguist there is a progressive positive tendency, therefore a longer amount of time is necessary to define the final results. The therapeutic capacity of this method of treatment is not limited only to the auditory area, but it has effect also in other fields related to communication and the integral development of the patients on whom it is applied.
Abundant literature is available on the results of cochlear implants in postlingual persons. Nevertheless, there are few long-term studies with a follow-up of more than 1 year. We present the outcomes of 37 postlingual patients with a 5-year follow-up period. We examined the modifications that occurred with changes in coding strategy (MPEAK-SPEAK). After activation, the coding strategy was SPEAK in 10 patients. MPEAK in 20: 7 other SPEAK had changed from MPEAK. Significant improvement (p < 0.01) was observed in all the tests in the first 6 months. Subsequent assessments revealed a constant improvement in all tests. The results were statistically significant (p < 0.05) for vowels, consonants and bisyllables. Performance with the SPEAK strategy was better than with MPEAK. These results were statistically significant for consonants (p < 0.05), monosyllables (p < 0.05) and bisyllables (p < 0.01). We concluded that the results of postlingual patients after cochlear implantation showed clear benefits of these devices in profound bilateral deafness, better results with the SPEAK coding strategy than with MPEAK and constant improvement in results, even after the first year of surgery.