title: Vibrant soundbridge versus conventional hearing aid in sensorineural high-frequency hearing loss: a prospective study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study was aimed to compare gain and speech intelligibility measured in quiet and in noise between the Signia hearing aid and the Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB), both devices using the same sound processing technology.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective longitudinal study was performed. Six patients with a steeply sloping high-frequency hearing loss were selected.
  
  
  METHODS
  The protocol comprised 3 months' hearing aid use, VSB implantation, and 3 months' VSB use.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patient performances were evaluated unaided and aided by audiologic assessments, including free-field thresholds and word recognition tasks in quiet and in noise.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Statistical analysis revealed a slight decrease in overall frequencies in pure-tone audiometry after surgery; however, this decrease did not exceed 5 dB and was not different from the changes that occurred in the contralateral nonimplanted ear. The measures of aided and unaided hearing thresholds showed statistically significant larger gains with the VSB than with the hearing aid. In quiet, speech performances were poorer unaided than with either device. Because of ceiling effects, statistically significant higher scores with the VSB than with the hearing aid were only observed at the lowest intensity level. In noise, speech intelligibility was reported to be better with the VSB compared with both unaided and with the hearing aid at 5 signal-to-noise ratios.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This prospective study demonstrated that direct-drive stimulation provided by the VSB allows better speech performances than acoustic stimulation for rehabilitation of patients with steeply sloping high-frequency hearing losses.
authors.affiliation: Département d'ORL, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, UMR CNRS 5020, Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France. eric.truy@chu-lyon.fr
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Truy
authors.forename: Bénédicte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Philibert
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Vesson
authors.forename: Samia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Labassi
authors.forename: Lionel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Collet
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014732:Vibration