Audiological Results in SSD With an Active Transcutaneous Bone Conduction Implant at a Retrosigmoidal Position

Abstract

The Bonebridge is a transcutaneous alternative to the well-established percutaneous bone conducting devices in patients with single sided deafness. An improvement in hearing in noise and quiet as well as a decrease of the head shadow effect can be expected.

Horizontal sound localisation and speech perception in Bonebridge-implanted single-sided deafness patients

“…Unsurprisingly, the results demonstrated that the benefit of word recognition score in quiet environments was significantly improved in the Bonebridge-aided condition. The average monosyllabic word recognition score in quiet environments was greatly increased at 65 dB SPL, which is consistent with a previous study on patients with single-sided deafness using Bonebridge devices reported by Salcher et al 24 Their results showed that the median word recognition score improved significantly in the Bonebridge-aided condition (80 per cent) as opposed to that in the Bonebridge-unaided condition (0 per cent), and no complications occurred in the present study. A multicenter retrospective study by Schmerber et al also evaluated the safety of the Bonebridge device at one-year follow up and concluded that it was an effective and safe transcutaneous device.…”

“…Moreover, when speech was presented from the front and noise was presented at 65 dB SPL to the contralateral side (speech and noise presented from the front and contralateral (normal ear) side separately), the speech-to-noise ratio was −1.77 dB and −3.08 dB in the Bonebridge-aided and Bonebridge-unaided conditions, respectively. 24 Furthermore, the mean speech recognition thresholds were reduced after implantation when both speech and noise were presented from the front. 28 However, Laske et al state that speech perception was not improved in patients with single-sided deafness in the speech and noise presented from the front condition irrespective of the use of a Bonebridge device.…”

“…The speech loudspeaker was located in front of the subject (at 0°azimuth), and the normal hearing ear was plugged and muffled during this testing. 24,25 Additionally, the speech recognition threshold of disyllabic words was examined in noise using the Mandarin speech test materials in three different conditions: (1) speech and noise presented from the front (0°); (2) speech and noise presented from the front and contralateral (normal ear) side separately; and (3) speech presented from the ipsilateral (implanted Bonebridge) side and noise from the contralateral side (see Figure 1a). During speech recognition threshold tests, the head should not move and needs to face the loudspeaker in the middle (0°a zimuth), and the normal ear (contralateral ear) should be kept open.…”

“…Another study demonstrated that a Bonebridge implant can greatly benefit patients' speech recognition thresholds in quiet and noise in three different listening environments when a Bonebridge floating mass transducer is located in the retrosigmoid region. 24 However, the level of sound localisation is not evaluated in these articles.…”

Implantation of a new active bone conduction hearing device with optimized geometry

“…However, it is necessary to consider the limitations of these systems with respect to their audiological indication criteria [ 19 ]. In patients with single-sided deafness, bone conduction hearing implants can be used to rehabilitate hearing through “contralateral routing of signal” (CROS) [ 4 , 23 ].…”