Takai Shunsuke, Sato Takeshi, Miyakura Yuya, Adachi Mika, Honkura Yohei, Yamauchi Daisuke, Katori Yukio
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8574, Miyagi, Japan.
Audiol Res. 2023 May 11;13(3):347-356. doi: 10.3390/audiolres13030030.
Cartilage conduction hearing aids (CC-HAs) are a novel type of hearing aid relying on cartilage conduction, the so-called third auditory conduction pathway. However, CC-HAs have only recently entered routine clinical use, and therefore data on their usefulness are lacking. The purpose of this study was to examine the possibility of assessing whether individual patients would show good adaptation to CC-HAs. Thirty-three subjects (41 ears in total) underwent a free trial of CC-HAs. Age, disease category, and the pure-tone threshold of air and bone conduction, unaided field sound threshold, aided field sound threshold, and functional gain (FG) at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz were compared between patients who subsequently purchased and did not purchase the CC-HAs. Overall, 65.9% of the subjects purchased CC-HAs after the trial. In comparison to non-purchasers, those who decided to purchase CC-HAs showed better pure tone hearing thresholds at high frequencies for both air conduction (2 and 4 kHz) and bone conduction (1, 2, and 4 kHz), as well as for aided thresholds in the sound field (1, 2, and 4 kHz) when using CC-HAs. Therefore, the high-frequency hearing thresholds of subjects trialing CC-HAs might be helpful for identifying those who are likely to benefit from them.
软骨传导助听器（CC-HAs）是一种新型的助听器，它依靠软骨传导，即所谓的第三听觉传导途径。然而，CC-HAs直到最近才开始常规临床应用，因此缺乏关于其效用的数据。本研究的目的是探讨评估个体患者是否能很好地适应CC-HAs的可能性。33名受试者（共41只耳朵）接受了CC-HAs的免费试用。比较了随后购买和未购买CC-HAs的患者之间的年龄、疾病类别、气导和骨导纯音阈值、未佩戴助听器时的声场声音阈值、佩戴助听器时的声场声音阈值以及在0.25、0.5、1、2和4kHz时的功能增益（FG）。总体而言，65.9%的受试者在试用后购买了CC-HAs。与未购买者相比，决定购买CC-HAs的人在高频时的气导（2和4kHz）和骨导（1、2和4kHz）纯音听力阈值更好，以及在使用CC-HAs时声场中的助听听阈（1、2和4kHz）也更好。因此，试用CC-HAs的受试者的高频听力阈值可能有助于识别那些可能从它们中受益的人。
