Aided free-field thresholds in children with conductive hearing loss fitted with air- or bone-conduction hearing aids

Although conductive hearing loss is often found in children, few reports have appeared on the fitting of hearing aids in these children. In the present study, aided thresholds were determined in 40 children and 30 adults with pure conductive hearing loss (bone-conduction thresholds of 20 dB HL or less) who were successfully fitted with hearing aids. The patient group was split into subgroups according to the type of hearing aid used (bone-conduction hearing aid, binaural or monaural air-conduction hearing aids). Within each subgroup, the aided thresholds proved to be comparable between the adults and children and were nonconsistently related to the degree of (air-conduction) hearing loss. In the patients with a bone-conduction hearing aid, the aided free-field thresholds at the most important frequencies for speech perception (1, 2 and 4 kHz) were found to be between 20 and 30 dB HL, while in the patients with an air-conduction hearing aid, irrespective of whether it was applied monaurally or binaurally, these thresholds were between 15 and 20 dB HL. It is suggested that these values should be considered as target thresholds when fitting hearing aids in children with conductive hearing loss.