Objectives: (1) Summarize hearing status in the nonimplant ear. (2) Report audiometric and subjective outcomes.

Methods: Multi-institutional retrospective chart review. We report outcomes of cochlear implantation in 12 patients with single-sided deafness. Hearing status in the nonimplant ear included: 6 patients with American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Class A, 4 with Class B, and 2 with Class C (1 with WRS 90%). Five of 12 (42%) patients had normal hearing in the nonimplanted ear. There were 6 male and 6 female patients. Average age was 51.5 years (range, 9-75 years). Average preoperative word recognition score in the nonimplanted ear was 82% (range, 52%-100%). Average preoperative pure tone average was 30.4 dB (range, 2-60 dB).

Results: Average post-implantation follow-up was 8 months (range, 1-36 months). Etiologies of deafness included 5 idiopathic sudden-sensorineural, 3 Ménière’s Disease, 2 idiopathic progressive, 1 labyrinthitis, and 1 iatrogenic. Audiometric results for the implant-only condition demonstrated mean consonant-nucleus-consonant score of 67% (range, 10%-88%) and mean AzBio score of 83% (range, 73%-97%). Objective testing in noise also showed substantial improvement compared to the preoperative condition. All are daily users.

Conclusions: Although cochlear implantation for asymmetric hearing loss and single-sided deafness is not Food and Drug Administration approved in the United States, our patients report a high level of satisfaction. Early audiometric data indicate that these patients score similarly to standard implant users in the CI only condition. In addition, they show substantial improvement in noise since preoperative testing. More data are needed to determine future candidacy for this intervention.