Directional Audiometry VII. The Influence Of Azimuth on the Perception of Speech in Aided and Unaided Patients with Binaural Hearing Loss

Abstract

Twenty patients with binaural hearing loss varying from a Pure Tone Average (PTA) of 28 dB hearing level to 45 dB hearing level were examined: The Directional Threshold of Intelligibility (Dn) was measured both without and with background noise, without and with hearing aids. Without background noise, the DTI with binaural hearing aids was found to be significantly better than the DTI with monaural hearing aid in 3 of the 4 positions of the signal loudspeaker. With background noise, the DTI with binaural hearing aids was found to be significantly better than with monaural hesaring aid in 6 of the 16 combinations of signal and noise loudspeakers. For all the 20 experimental listening conditions we found that the DTI was significantly better with binaural hearing aids than with monaural in 11 of the 20 patients. For the 16 experimental listening conditions with background noise we found a significantly better DTI with binaural hearing aids than with monaural in 13 of the 20 patients. The results indicate that binaural hearing aids are to be preferred.