Bone-conduction hearing aid is effective in congenital oval window atresia

Abstract

Background

Implantable bone-conduction hearing aids (BCHA) are effective in patients with congenital ear malformations.However, there is no large sample study to verify the efficacy of Bonebridge in patients with congenital oval window atresia.

Objectives

To investigate efficiency of implantable bone-conduction hearing aids in Mandarin-speaking patients with congenital oval window atresia

Material and methods

We retrospectively analyzed 15 patients, who were confirmed with either unilateral or bilateral congenital oval window atresia by temporal bone CT. All patients were implanted with a bone-conduction hearing device between July 2016 and July 2019 at Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University. Pure tone audiometry (PTA), air-bone gap (ABG), speech discrimination scores (SDSs), and hearing thresholds were performed.

Results

Postoperative complications including facial paralysis were particularly rare. Unaided mean sound field threshold was 62.2 ± 10.5 dBHL and that with implantable bone-conduction hearing aids was 39.1 ± 13.2 dBHL (p < 0.01). The mean speech discrimination scores improved greatly (p < 0.01), specifically with regard to sentence and disyllabic words.

Conclusions

Patients with congenital oval window atresia often show moderate to severe conductive hearing loss. Implantable bone-conduction hearing aids are considerably safe and stable for hearing rehabilitation. It is a novel treatment modality for Mandarin-speaking patients with congenital oval window atresia.

Chinese abstract

背景：植入式骨导助听器（BCHA）对于先天性耳畸形患者有效, 但尚无大量样本研究来验证Bonebridge对于先天性椭圆形窗口闭锁症患者的有效性。

目的：探讨植入式骨导助听器对于说普通话的先天性椭圆形窗口闭锁患者的有效性。

材料和方法：我们回顾性分析了15例经颞骨CT证实为单侧或双侧先天性椭圆形窗口闭锁的患者。所有患者均在2016年7月至2019年7月期间在北京首都医科大学同仁医院被植入骨导式助听器。进行了纯音测听（PTA）、气隙（ABG）、语音识别得分（SDS）和听力阈值的测试。

结果：包括面瘫在内的术后并发症特别少见。无助的平均声场阈值为62.2±10.5dBHL, 用植入式骨导助听器时该阈值为39.1±13.2 dBHL（p <0.01）。平均语音辨别力得分大大提高（p <0.01）, 特别是对于句子和双音节单词, 尤为如此。

结论：先天性椭圆形窗口闭锁患者常表现为中度至重度传导听力损失。植入式骨导助听器对于听力恢复是非常安全稳定的。这是一种针对先天性椭圆形窗口闭锁普通话患者的新颖治疗方法。

Keywords:

• Congenital ear malformations
• oval window atresia
• implantable bone-conduction hearing aids

Disclosure statement

This manuscript has not been published or presented elsewhere in part or in entirety and is not under consideration by another journal. The parents of all study participants provided informed consent, and the study design was approved by the appropriate ethics review board. We have read and understood your journal’s policies, and we believe that neither the manuscript nor the study violates any of these. There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

The project was financially supported by Project of Capital Clinical Characteristic Application Research of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission [No. Z171100001017079].