title: Hearing preservation in partial deafness treatment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Partial deafness (PD) is a condition in which hearing loss occurs in at least 1 frequency critical to speech understanding. Current options for partial deafness treatment (PDT) rely on preoperative hearing preservation, which, along with the use of different means of acoustic and electric stimulation, enable extending the indications for various assistive hearing devices. Possible solutions include acoustic methods only, the use of hearing aids or middle ear implants, electric complementation, and a combination of electric and acoustic stimulation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 95 patients (63 adults, 32 children) with different types of PD were treated using selected types of electrodes and the optimal "round window" approach to the inner ear, with at least 36 months of observation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The extension of PDT indications created an opportunity for patients with different hearing impairments who obtained no benefit from a hearing aid and did not qualify for standard cochlear implant application. The authors' observations are based on the findings that preservation of preoperative hearing had been achieved in 97.1% of adult patients (8 years' observation) and in 100% of children (6 years' observation). Those results send the important message that PDT is feasible and effective.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To allow comparison of PDT results from different studies, the authors developed the Skarzynski PDT classification system, which permits the comparison of postoperative results, including the degree of hearing preservation and, more importantly, the patient's understanding of speech after treatment.
authors.affiliation: International Center of Hearing and Speech of the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warsaw/Kajetany, Poland. henryk.skarzynski@ifps.org.pl
authors.forename: Henryk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Skarzynski
authors.forename: Artur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lorens
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Piotrowska
authors.forename: Piotr Henryk
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Skarzynski
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011184:Postoperative Period; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult