Auditory brainstem and cortical potentials following bone-anchored hearing aid stimulation

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Neuroscience
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHA) offer solutions for conductive/mixed hearing loss and single-sided deafness.
• Objective audiometric assessment is crucial for patients unable to provide subjective feedback.
• Electrophysiological methods are needed to estimate hearing thresholds with BAHA stimulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the feasibility of using electrophysiological methods to determine hearing thresholds with BAHA stimulation.
• To evaluate the efficacy of auditory brainstem responses (ABR) and cortically evoked potentials (CAEP) for objective BAHA fitting.

Main Methods:

• Ten normal-hearing subjects were fitted with a Baha Intenso via a Baha Softband.
• Auditory evoked potentials (ABR and CAEP) were recorded during BAHA stimulation.
• Responses were compared to those obtained via earphone stimulation.

Main Results:

• Waveforms from ABR and CAEP recordings using BAHA stimulation were comparable to earphone stimulation.
• A stimulus artifact and latency shift were noted in ABR recordings with BAHA.
• CAEP recordings showed potential as a frequency-specific objective method for BAHA fitting.

Conclusions:

• Electrophysiological recording of ABR and CAEP using BAHA stimulation is feasible.
• Consideration of specific limitations, such as stimulus artifact and latency shifts, is necessary.
• CAEP shows promise for objective approval of bone-anchored hearing aid fitting.