Monaural hearing aid effect: case presentations.

A phenomenon associated with a monaural hearing aid fitting has previously been identified. In some individuals with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (BSNHL), the speech-recognition score (SRS) of the unfitted ear deteriorates over time. Nine subjects with BSNHL who chose a monaural hearing aid fitting are chronicled from the time of their initial hearing fitting to the time where the SRS of the unfitted ear dropped below the lower limit of the 95 percent critical difference value. All nine of the subjects were fitted with binaural amplification at the time of the significant change in the SRS. Five of the subjects retained the binaural amplification arrangement while three of the subjects returned their second hearing aid after a "30 day trial," and one subject stopped wearing the second hearing aid 8 months after the binaural fitting. All the subjects who chose to utilize the binaural arrangement had their SRS return to within the 95 percent critical difference range as did two of the individuals who chose to retain the monaural arrangement.