Fully Implantable Hearing Aids in Patients With Congenital Auricular Atresia

Abstract

This technique appears to provide a completely new dimension for the audiologic rehabilitation of patients with severe malformation of the middle ear.

Fully implantable hearing device in isolated congenital external ear canal atresia

“…Hearing improvement was 29 dB HL on pure tone audiological evaluation. [10] Siegert et al [3] implanted Carina ® in 5 external ear atresia patients with ossicular malformations. The transducer was connected to the malformed malleus-incus complex in two patients similar to the technique used to connect it to the incus in patients with normal middle ears.…”

“…So this fully implantable middle ear device brings up many advantages such as no visible external components and allowing swimming, sportive activities. [3] …”

“…[2] In most of these patients, they suffer from a conductive hearing loss with an air-bone gap of 50 to 60 dB. [3] Defective language development as a consequence of hearing loss, congenital cholesteatoma and especially physicosocial problems due to cosmetic deformity are the main problems of aural atresia. [4] In the treatment of hearing loss with external ear canal atresia, BAHA and osseo-integrated implants are being used in developed countries.…”

A Case of the Vibrant Soundbridge Implantation to Unilateral Congenital Aural Atresia

“…No perioperative complication was experienced. In an even earlier study in the USA in 2007 [4], 5 patients with aural atresia had VSB installed, and patients experienced an improvement of the sound-field thresholds up to 50 dB; an average improvement of 70% in speech discrimination at a sound level of 65 dB HL. The average speech threshold showed a functional gain of 32 dB HL.…”

“…The majority of the patients (80-90%) have moderate severe to severe grade conductive hearing loss on the diseased side [4]. Patients with unilateral aural atresia usually have normal hearing on the unaffected side, unless an underlying syndrome is associated, for example, Goldenhar syndrome [5].…”