Bone conductive implantation in asymmetric hearing loss (AHL)

Abstract

Background: Bone conductive implants (BCI) represent one possible solution for rehabilitation of single-sided deafness (SSD).

Aims: The aim of the present study was to verify the efficacy of bone conduction implantation in subjects with unilateral severe-to-profound hearing loss and contralaterally impaired hearing, that is, asymmetric hearing loss (AHL), and to compare it with known BCI indications for SSD.

Material and methods: Twenty-one subjects received BCI for either SSD or AHL. All of the subjects underwent a battery of audiological and subjective tests, Data were collected and statistically evaluated within and between the SSD group and the AHL group.

Results: A PTA threshold gain was observed in AHL patients along with improved values in speech audiometry in quiet and noise. The two visual analogue scale evaluations (QoL and QoS) and the GBI showed significantly better scores in AHL patients compared to SSD patients.

Conclusions: BCI provided improvement for auditory or speech recognition in AHL subjects, as compare to SSD. From these findings, it is possible to predict a positive role of BCI for some audiological aspects of AHL subjects that are generally not present or not detectable in SSD cases.

Chinese abstract

背景：骨传导植入物（BCI）代表了一种可能的单侧耳​​聋（SSD）康复解决方案。

目的：本研究的目的是验证骨传导植入术在单侧重度至几近全部听力损失和对侧听力损失的受试者中的有效性, 即非对称性听力损失（AHL）, 并将其与已知的SSD的BCI指征进行比较。

材料和方法：21名受试者获得了SSD或AHL的BCI。所有受试者接受了一系列的听觉和主观测试, 在SSD组和AHL组之内以及之间进行了数据收集和统计评估。

结果：在AHL患者中观察到PTA阈值增加, 安静和噪音环境下的语音值得到改善。与SSD病人相比, AHL病人的两次视觉模拟量表评估（QoL和QoS）和GBI评分明显更好。

结论：与SSD相比, BCI改善了AHL受试者的听觉或言语识别能力。从这些发现, 有可能预测BCI在AHL受试者的某些听力方面起积极作用。这种作用在SSD病例中通常不存在或无法检测到。

Keywords:

• Bone conductive device
• single-sided deafness
• asymmetric hearing loss

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).