Surgical and audiological results of bone-anchored hearing aids: comparison of two surgical techniques

Minimally invasive surgery as a new clinical standard for bone anchored hearing implants—real-world data from 10 years of follow-up and 228 surgeries

“…However, Holgers scores indicate that there are fewer and less severe skin complications after minimally invasive procedures, which is in line with previously reported findings in the literature ( 4 , 17 , 18 , 25 ). The reported Holgers scores were in accordance with those previously published by Amaral et al, 2020 ( 16 ) but slightly higher than those reported in the systematic review by Lagerkvist et al, 2020 ( 5 ) which is possibly explained by the unique study setting. The study data included a wide range of ages and although the total sample only included 8% patients below the age of 12 years it is possible that this group is over-represented among the complication rates as previously reported by Bezdjian et al 2018 ( 26 ).…”

“…Data collected included information about demography and background data (age, gender, hearing loss etiology), surgical technique and setup (implanted ear/s, procedure, duration, anesthesia, implant type/length), and complications and follow-up data [intra/postoperative complications, Holgers score ( 19 , 20 ), scarring, pain, numbness, implant loss, revision surgery, abutment change]. Additionally, baseline and follow-up audiological measurements were collected including audiological diagnosis, pure tone average from frequencies of 500, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 Hz, and speech recognition by means of monosyllabic recognition ( 16 ). All data points were derived from medical records and represent standard follow-up measures used in clinical practice.…”

“…Several researchers have reported comparisons between linear incision and minimally invasive surgical techniques for boneanchored hearing implant installation; however, these studies are often limited by small cohort sizes (14)(15)(16)(17)(18). The present study reports an extensive cohort of 228 bone-anchored hearing implants in 200 patients, representing unadjusted real-world data from introducing minimally invasive surgical techniques for boneanchored hearing implant installations as the new clinical standard.…”