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Abstract
Objective: This study was undertaken to determine the efficacy of the round window (RW) application of the vibrant soundbridge (VSB) in patients with mixed or conductive hearing loss. Design: Speech in quiet and in noise were compared to preoperative data attained with conventional hearing aids so that each subject served as his or her own control in a single test protocol. Study sample: Eighteen adults implanted monaurally with the VSB in the poorer hearing ear. Experience with the VSB ranged from nine to 25 months. Results: Sixteen of the 18 subjects were successful VSB users, wearing their device all waking hours. There was no significant deterioration in the averaged bone conduction results preoperatively versus post-operatively (p > 0.05). Speech recognition in quiet results were not significantly different to performance attained whilst wearing hearing aids (p > 0.05). Speech recognition in noise performance was substantially improved with use of the VSB in most test conditions. Conclusions: For the majority of the subjects, the VSB was an effective method of hearing restoration for their mixed and conductive hearing loss.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the subjects for their cooperation during the course of the study, and Med-el for supplying the implants. In addition, we would like to thank Melanie Carruthers, Elaine Melville, Lisa Giles, Samantha Rault, Kim Mabbott, Sally Lucas, and Sharon Sandells for their ongoing support and assistance with data entry and collection of results, as well as Gregor Dittrich, Katrise Eager, Cathy Sucher, and Peter Friedland for their invaluable insights and feedback.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.