Hearing performance with 2 different high-power sound processors for osseointegrated auditory implants.

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Hearing Science

Background:

• Conductive or mixed hearing loss can significantly impair speech understanding.
• Osseointegrated auditory implants offer a solution for hearing loss.
• Different sound processors may provide varying levels of speech intelligibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the speech understanding performance of the BAHA BP110 and BAHA Intenso sound processors.
• To evaluate aided speech understanding in quiet and noisy conditions.
• To assess the impact of sound processor type on speech intelligibility with different noise sources.

Main Methods:

• Prospective experimental study conducted at a tertiary referral center.
• Twenty experienced users of osseointegrated auditory implants participated.
• Participants were fitted sequentially with the BAHA Intenso and BAHA BP110, with speech understanding measured after one month of use for each device.

Main Results:

• Both sound processors demonstrated significant improvements in speech understanding in quiet and noise.
• No significant differences were observed between the BAHA BP110 and BAHA Intenso for speech understanding in quiet.
• The BAHA BP110 provided significantly better speech understanding at lower signal-to-noise ratios for noise originating from the rear compared to the BAHA Intenso.

Conclusions:

• Both the BAHA BP110 and BAHA Intenso substantially enhance speech understanding for individuals with conductive or mixed hearing loss.
• There are no significant differences in speech understanding in quiet between the two devices.
• The BAHA BP110 shows a significant advantage over the BAHA Intenso for speech understanding in noise originating from the rear.