title: Functional outcomes of Vibrant Soundbridge applied on the middle ear windows in comparison with conventional hearing aids.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) application to the middle ear windows yields better functional outcomes than conventional hearing aids. However, speech discrimination scores obtained with VSB and conventional hearing aids are similar.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess audiological outcomes of round and oval window applications of VSB in comparison with conventional hearing aids.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nineteen adult patients were included in the study. The patients had mild to moderate, moderate or moderate to profound conductive or mixed hearing loss. During surgery the floating mass transducer (FMT) was placed on the round (n = 14) or oval (n = 5) window. After the surgery, audiometric evaluation and free field audiometric evaluation of both ears was carried out.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The hearing thresholds in the low frequencies were not significantly different between the conventional hearing aids and VSB. The functional gains obtained with oval and round window approaches were similar except for 500 Hz. The hearing thresholds in the mid and high frequencies were significantly better with VSB than the conventional hearing aids. The functional gain in the low frequencies was not significantly different between VSB and conventional hearing aids. The functional gain in the other frequencies was significantly better with VSB than conventional hearing aids.
authors.affiliation: Audiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey. bulentgunduz4@gmail.com
authors.forename: Bulent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gunduz
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Atas
authors.forename: Yıldırım A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Bayazıt
authors.forename: Nebil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goksu
authors.forename: Cagıl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gokdogan
authors.forename: Hakan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tutar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D046089:Hearing Loss, Mixed Conductive-Sensorineural / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010046:Oval Window, Ear; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D019919:Prosthesis Implantation; D012405:Round Window, Ear; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D055815:Young Adult