A multicenter study on objective and subjective benefits with a transcutaneous bone-anchored hearing aid device: first Nordic results

Examination of objective as well as subjective outcomes with a new transcutaneous bone-anchored hearing aid device. The study was designed as a prospective multicenter consecutive case-series study involving tertiary referral centers at two Danish University Hospitals. A total of 23 patients were implanted. Three were lost to follow-up. Patients had single-sided deafness, conductive or mixed hearing loss. Intervention: Rehabilitative. Aided and unaided sound field hearing was evaluated objectively using (1) pure warble tone thresholds, (2) pure-tone average (PTA4), (3) speech discrimination score (SDS) in quiet, and (4) speech reception threshold 50% at 70 dB SPL noise level (SRT50%). Subjective benefit was evaluated by three validated questionnaires: (1) the IOI-HA, (2) the SSQ-12, and (3) a questionnaire evaluating both the frequency and the duration of hearing aid usage. The mean aided PTA4 was lowered by 14.7 dB. SDS was increased by 37.5% at 50 dB SPL, SRT50% in noise improved 1.4 dB. Aided thresholds improved insignificantly at frequencies above 2 kHz. 52.9% of the patients used their device every day, and 76.5% used the device at least 5 days a week. Mean IOI-HA score was 3.4, corresponding to a good benefit. In SSQ-12, “quality of hearing” scored especially high. Patients with a conductive and/or mixed hearing loss benefitted the most. This device demonstrates a significant subjective hearing benefit 8 month post surgery. In patients with conductive and/or mixed hearing losses, patient satisfaction and frequency of use were high. Objective gain measures showed less promising results especially in patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) compared to other bone conduction devices.