No abstract

Children and patients with mental retardation are the most vulnerable to soft tissue reactions and implant losses. Additional and more frequent care needs to be given during outpatient consultations. Because loading as early as 3 to 5 weeks did not negatively affect skin reactions or implant survival, full BCD installation can occur earlier without risk.

The modified Nijmegen surgical technique is a simple straightforward surgical procedure without the use of a pedicled skin flap. Surgery takes approximately 20 minutes. Meticulous performance of the procedure is considered important to achieve optimal results in the long-term. Particularly the soft tissue reduction has to be done with great care. In terms of the low rates of implant failure and adverse tissue reactions, the Nijmegen surgical technique proved to be a good alternative to other techniques.

The treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) by the Epley, canalith repositioning, manoeuvre was popularized following clinical reports which demonstrated a significant success rate. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is considered a self-limiting disease, yet only few authors have analysed the effect of this manoeuvre in randomized, controlled terms. A prospective 3-year, controlled study of patients with BPPV of long duration (mean = 6 months) verified its benefit: the recovery course differed significantly between a group of 31 patients treated with the manoeuvre and a control group of 10 untreated patients. Symptoms subsided within 72 h in 35% and within a week in 74% of patients after one session of treatment. Only two treated patients (6.5%) did not recover versus a 50% failure rate among untreated patients (P = 0.0005). The rate of recovery was not affected by the duration of symptoms before initiation of treatment, or by the patient's age and gender.

The test implant showed higher mean ISQ values at the time of placement and over time. The level of osseointegration reached with the implants in adults as early as 6 weeks after implantation was sufficient to support the sound processor. The test implant system is expected to provide additional benefits related to the improvement of the degree of osseointegration, especially for patients with thin or compromised bone.

This extensive long-term clinical investigation demonstrated that the test implant is more stable in terms of ISQ-values and provides high tolerability for the soft tissue. The results show that implant loading at 6 weeks is safe.

Overall, BAHA fitting can be considered effective and beneficial in children with bilateral or unilateral hearing loss.

Fixture loss was more frequent in children than in adults. The age of the child and the length of the fixture did not appear to influence fixture stability. Children should undergo frequent checkups at the outpatient clinic.