Bone-anchored hearing aid subjective benefit for unilateral deafness

Determine the benefit of the bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) in patients with unilateral deafness.

Retrospective case series and prospective questionnaire study at a tertiary referral center.

Patients with unilateral deafness of various etiologies who were implanted with a BAHA (n = 126) or not implanted with a BAHA after a translabyrinthine craniotomy (n = 126) were mailed questionnaires. A total of 139 patients (55%) responded to the questionnaires. Patients who were implanted with a BAHA received a general questionnaire concerning BAHA usage, the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB), and the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Questionnaire (SSQ). Patients not implanted with a BAHA received only the SSQ hearing questionnaire.

Patients with unilateral deafness demonstrated a benefit with BAHA use on the APHAB. Most improvement with the BAHA was seen in the Background Noise subscale, with a 17.4% improvement. Ease of Communication and Reverberation subscales also demonstrated an 11.6% and 13.2% benefit, respectively. Patients with a BAHA demonstrated better scores in the SSQ Speech subscale when compared to unilaterally deaf patients who did not have a BAHA, although this difference was not significant.

The APHAB demonstrated significant benefit with the use of a BAHA in patients with unilateral deafness. Although the SSQ speech subscale showed overall improvement in auditory disability with the use of a BAHA, this difference was not significant. However, the SSQ hearing questionnaire demonstrated specific situations were the BAHA is most useful.