title: Management of repeated trauma to bone-anchored hearing aids in a paediatric patient.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To outline the management options and neurological complications associated with repeated traumatic falls that cause intrusion of bone-anchored hearing aid abutments.
  
  
  METHODS
  A three-year-old boy with coloboma, heart defects, atresia of nasal choanae, retarded growth, genital abnormalities, ear defects and deafness was fitted with a bone-anchored hearing aid for severe conductive hearing loss and congenital ear malformations. Six months later, a traumatic fall caused an intrusion injury which rendered the bone-anchored hearing aid abutment unusable. Without removing the original abutment, a second abutment was inserted on the same side to aid his hearing. Two years later, the child fell again and damaged his second bone-anchored hearing aid abutment. Having been offered a surgical option to repair the area, the parents opted to keep the abutments in situ.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Direct trauma to the fixture of a bone-anchored hearing aid is a relatively common long-term complication in children which can disrupt osseointegration and disable the implant. For young children who are either prone to falling or have behavioural problems, a bone-anchored hearing aid Softband may be more appropriate to non-invasively aid hearing.
authors.affiliation: King's College London School of Medicine, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shamil
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Topsakal
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Grolman
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016348:Osseointegration; D019919:Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D012887:Skull Fractures / Q000209:etiology*; D013701:Temporal Bone / Q000293:injuries*; D016896:Treatment Outcome