Clinical experience with the active middle ear implant Vibrant Soundbridge in sensorineural hearing loss.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate gain at threshold level and speech recognition performance of 54 subjects with mild-to-severe symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) that received the active middle ear implant system Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB).


METHODS
Pre- and postoperative assessments of hearing thresholds and monosyllabic word discrimination were performed in a homogeneous group of 54 adults who received a VSB system (VORP 502/AP 404) in an active middle ear implant (AMEI) program in a tertiary referral hospital. All subjects included in this study had mild-to-severe, predominately sloping SNHL. Gain at threshold level and speech recognition results were assessed for unaided and aided conditions using the patient's walk-in hearing aid (HA) and the VSB in a retrospective study design.


RESULTS
A comparison of pre- and postoperative unaided air conduction thresholds revealed a mean decrease in pure tone averages of 3.9 dB (0.25-8 kHz). Gain at threshold level (unaided thresholds minus AMEI-aided thresholds) was, on average, 20.9 dB at 0.5 kHz, 20.5 dB at 1 kHz, 23.8 dB at 2 kHz, 30.2 dB at 3 kHz, 36.1 dB at 4 kHz, 37.6 dB at 6 kHz and 37.9 dB at 8 kHz. Monosyllabic word discrimination at 65 dB SPL improved from a mean of 30% in the unaided condition to 44% for the HA-aided condition (p<0.05), with a further increase to 57% for the VSB-aided condition (p<0.05, compared to the HA).


CONCLUSIONS
The AMEI system VSB can be considered as an effective rehabilitation alternative in subjects with mild-to-severe SNHL and unsatisfying benefit from conventional hearing aids.
Pok
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Schlögel
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Böheim
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D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009998:Ossicular Prosthesis; D017755:Prosthesis Fitting; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D016896:Treatment Outcome