[Effect of a hearing aid on progressive hearing loss].

A group of 72 children with hearing aids followed in 4 different clinical settings presented progressive increase in sensorineural hearing loss. The mean hearing loss over time, the duration of hearing aid use and the gain were studied to test the hypothesis that continued progression in hearing loss was due to overly powerful amplification. No correlation was found between the progressive increased gain levels were associated with less progression in hearing loss than at lower gain levels. Therefore, the use of hearing aids was not directly and significantly related to the increase in hearing loss in the population studied. However according to the above criteria a few cases (4%) of progressive hearing loss did seem to be associated with hearing aid use.