Cebulla Mario, Köstler Carolina, Herrmann David P, Rak Kristen
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2025 Feb 1. doi: 10.1007/s00405-025-09248-5.
The Vibrant Soundbridge active middle ear implant is indicated for the treatment of different types of hearing loss. Recently, a novel system for determining implant performance based on auditory brainstem response (ABR) was developed. A reference value for the expected ABR hearing thresholds is determined on the base of a substantial number of measurements in this work.
ABRs were recorded in patients following VSB surgery. A standard ABR system was employed, utilizing an implemented optimized chirp stimulus, which was transmitted directly to the VSB via the AcoustiAP transmission unit (MED-EL). The study included 104 subjects with different types of hearing loss. Six distinct VSB couplers were utilized in this cohort.
ABR were recorded in all patients. The intraoperative ABR thresholds were 20.1 dB higher compared to the preoperative BC thresholds, 15.9 dB higher compared to the postoperative vibrogram, and 13.4 dB higher compared with the vibrogram thresholds determined at the first fitting. No significant differences were observed between the different couplers in either the investigated methods.
It can be posited that the presented intraoperative measurement reference value enhances the interpretability of ABR in VSB and should be considered, when using this method in VSB surgery.
Vibrant Soundbridge主动式中耳植入物适用于治疗不同类型的听力损失。最近，开发了一种基于听觉脑干反应（ABR）来确定植入物性能的新系统。在这项工作中，基于大量测量确定了预期ABR听力阈值的参考值。
对接受VSB手术的患者进行ABR记录。采用标准的ABR系统，利用实施的优化啁啾刺激，该刺激通过AcoustiAP传输单元（MED-EL）直接传输到VSB。该研究纳入了104例不同类型听力损失的受试者。该队列中使用了六种不同的VSB耦合器。
所有患者均记录到ABR。术中ABR阈值比术前骨导阈值高20.1 dB，比术后振动图高15.9 dB，比首次试戴时确定的振动图阈值高13.4 dB。在所研究的方法中，不同耦合器之间未观察到显著差异。
可以假定，所呈现的术中测量参考值提高了VSB中ABR的可解释性，在VSB手术中使用该方法时应予以考虑。
