Round window application of an active middle ear implant (AMEI) system in congenital oval window atresia.
CONCLUSIONS
Application of the Vibrant Soundbridge to the round window (RW) membrane can be utilized as an efficient therapy for congenital oval window (OW) atresia.


OBJECTIVE
To report the surgical technique and auditory outcome of an active middle ear implant (AMEI) system used in patients with congenital OW atresia.


METHODS
Nine subjects with congenital OW atresia (six males and three females, ranging in age from 5.5 to 25 years, average 12.5 years) were implanted with an AMEI (Vibrant Soundbridge) at the round window (RW-Vibroplasty). Five cases were diagnosed as having isolated congenital OW atresia while four patients presented with combined external/middle ear malformation.


RESULTS
An improvement of 30 dB in average pure-tone air conduction thresholds (0.5-4 kHz) was achieved, with the high frequencies showing greater results. The subjects achieved postoperative speech recognition scores of 80-100% on the Computerized Mandarin Speech Test System (CMSTS) sentence test. Bone conduction thresholds were confirmed as stable in all subjects postoperatively. Decline in auditory benefit was noticed in two subjects, who then underwent revision surgery. One of these revision surgery patients then experienced stable hearing recovery, while the other patient's hearing declined.
a Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery , Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education , Beijing , China ;
Shouqin
S
Zhao
a Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery , Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education , Beijing , China ;
Shusheng
S
Gong
a Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery , Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education , Beijing , China ;
Demin
D
Han
b Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology , Beijing , China.
Hua
H
Zhang
a Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery , Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education , Beijing , China ;
Xiaobo
X
Ma
a Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery , Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education , Beijing , China ;
Yi
Y
Li
b Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology , Beijing , China.
Xueqing
X
Chen
a Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery , Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education , Beijing , China ;
Ran
R
Ren
b Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology , Beijing , China.
Yuling
Y
Li
D000293:Adolescent; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D001844:Bone Conduction; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009998:Ossicular Prosthesis; D010046:Oval Window, Ear / Q000002:abnormalities*; D012405:Round Window, Ear / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
Vibrant Soundbridge; atresia; ear malformation; microtia; middle ear malformation; speech recognition