Bone-anchored hearing aids for unilateral hearing loss in teenagers.
OBJECTIVE
Outside of classroom interventions, treatment for unilateral hearing loss in children has been limited. The purpose of this clinical capsule was to report on follow-up of a case series of teenage patients who received bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHAs) to compensate for single-sided deafness.


METHODS
Three patients (2 boys, 1 girl) 16 to 18 years of age with a profound sensorineural hearing loss in 1 ear.


METHODS
Bone-anchored hearing aid surgery was performed using a 2-stage surgical procedure separated by a 6-month period for proper osseointegration. Patients were fitted with a BAHA Divino (Cochlear Bone Anchored Solutions, Molnlycke, Sweden) 2 weeks after the second-stage surgery.


METHODS
Results of the hearing-in-noise test (HINT), with speech stimuli at 0 degree azimuth and noise at 180 degrees azimuth, as well as results of the Children's Home Inventory for Listening Difficulties (CHILD) questionnaire, completed by both the patient and a parent. The HINT and CHILD were performed before and after BAHA fitting.


RESULTS
There were higher CHILD scores postimplant, indicating improved child and parent satisfaction. Better results on the HINT postimplant indicated an improved ability to understand speech in noise.


CONCLUSIONS
The BAHA appeared to be of benefit to these teenage patients with unilateral hearing loss.
Christensen
Lisa
L
Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA.
Dornhoffer
John L
JL
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011187:Posture; D019919:Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D011932:Reading; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013690:Television; D013701:Temporal Bone / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome