Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 14, 2026
Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention
Published on: December 20, 2024
Effectiveness of the SoundBite Bone-conduction Device in Improving Audibility, Sound Localization, and Speech
Ting Kou1,2,3, WeiDong Shen2, Hao Zhun Li3
1Medical School of Chinese PLA.
Objective:
To evaluate the effectiveness of the SoundBite bone-conduction device (referred to as SoundBite) in improving hearing thresholds, speech recognition, and sound localization for patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) after acoustic neuroma (AN) surgery.
Study Design:
A controlled, nonrandomized, prospective, unblinded study of SSD patients.
Setting:
Tertiary referral center.
Patients:
Thirty-eight patients with AN who had SSD after surgery.
Intervention:
Provision of SoundBite compared with no SoundBite.
Main Outcome Measures:
Mean hearing thresholds in the affected ear, monosyllabic and bisyllabic word recognition in quiet, Speech Recognition Scores (SRS) in noise at signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of -5, 0, and 10 dB, and root-mean-square error (RMSE) of sound localization.
Results:
SoundBite resulted in significant improvements in mean hearing thresholds for the affected ear (measured using headphones), and monosyllabic and bisyllabic word recognition rates in quiet ( P <0.001). SRS in noise improved by 25.9% (95% CI: 19.9%-31.9%, P <0.001) at 0 dB SNR and 28.5% (95% CI: 19.1%-37.8%, P <0.001) at -5 dB SNR. There was no significant effect at 10 dB SNR, because of ceiling effects. The RMSE of sound localization improved by 12.2 degrees (95% CI: 9.4-15 degrees, P <0.001) with the use of SoundBite. The improvement in RMSE was greater for patients with recent hearing loss than for those with long-term hearing loss (17.1 degrees±8.9 degrees vs. 8.6 degrees±6.2 degrees, P =0.01).
Conclusions:
SoundBite is a viable option for hearing rehabilitation for this patient population. Provision soon after surgery may be most effective.
