Theprogramming of CIs is essential for good performance.However, no Good Clinical Practice guidelines exist. This paper reports\r\non the results of an inventory of the current practice worldwide. A questionnairewas distributed to 47 CI centers.They follow 47600\r\nrecipients in 17 countries and 5 continents. The results were discussed during a debate. Sixty-two percent of the results were verified\r\nthrough individual interviews during the following months. Most centers (72%) participated in a cross-sectional study logging\r\n5 consecutive fitting sessions in 5 different recipients. Data indicate that general practice starts with a single switch-on session,\r\nfollowed by three monthly sessions, three quarterly sessions, and then annual sessions, all containing one hour of programming\r\nand testing. The main focus lies on setting maximum and, to a lesser extent, minimum current levels per electrode. These levels are\r\noften determined on a few electrodes and then extrapolated.They aremainly based on subjective loudness perception by the CI user\r\nand, to a lesser extent, on pure tone and speech audiometry. Objective measures play a small role as indication of the global MAP\r\nprofile. Other MAP parameters are rarely modified. Measurable targets are only defined for pure tone audiometry. Huge variation\r\nexists between centers on all aspects of the fitting practice.
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