Does the bone-anchored hearing aid have a complementary effect on audiological and subjective outcomes in patients with unilateral conductive hearing loss?

OBJECTIVES

To study the effect of a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) in patients with unilateral conductive hearing loss.

STUDY DESIGN

Prospective evaluation on 18 subjects.

METHODS

Aided and unaided binaural hearing was assessed in the sound field using a sound localization test and a speech recognition in noise test with spatially separated sound and noise sources. The patients also filled out a disability-specific questionnaire.

PATIENTS

13 out of the 18 subjects had normal hearing on one side and acquired conductive hearing loss in the other ear. The remaining 5 patients had a unilateral air-bone gap and mild symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss.

RESULTS

Sound localization with the BAHA improved significantly. Speech recognition in noise with spatially separated speech and noise sources also improved with the BAHA. Fitting a BAHA to patients with unilateral conductive hearing loss had a complementary effect on hearing. Questionnaire results showed that the BAHA was of obvious benefit in daily life.

CONCLUSIONS

The BAHA proved to be a beneficial means to optimize binaural hearing in patients with severe (40-60 dB) unilateral conductive hearing loss according to audiometric data and patient outcome measures.