title: Bone-anchored hearing aids in unilateral inner ear deafness.
abstract: In nine patients with unilateral deafness and normal hearing in the contralateral ear, measurements of sound localization and speech perception were obtained before intervention, with a conventional contralateral routing of sound (CROS) hearing aid and later with a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) implanted in the deaf ear. Sound localization did not show any differences between the three conditions. Speech perception using short, everyday sentences showed a reduction in the head-shadow effect of 2 dB for both the conventional CROS hearing aid and the BAHA in comparison to the unaided condition. Patients' real-life experiences of the three conditions were evaluated using the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) questionnaire. The results showed a significant benefit with the BAHA in situations involving background noise and reverberation and a reduced aversion to loud sounds in comparison to the unaided and conventional CROS conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Medical Centre Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Arjan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Bosman
authors.forename: Myrthe K S
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Hol
authors.forename: Ad F M
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Snik
authors.forename: Emmanuel A M
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Mylanus
authors.forename: Cor W R J
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Cremers
mesh_terms: D001302:Audiometry, Speech / Q000379:methods; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D001844:Bone Conduction / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009464:Neuroma, Acoustic / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D017755:Prosthesis Fitting; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome