Objective and Subjective Outcome of a New Transcutaneous Bone Conduction Hearing Device: Half-year Follow-up of the First 12 Nordic Implantations

OBJECTIVE: To examine the objective and subjective outcome of a new transcutaneous bone conduction hearing device.

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective, consecutive case series.

PATIENTS: Twelve patients were implanted. Eight patients had a conductive/mixed (con/mix) hearing loss. Four had single sided deafness.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: At half-year follow-up, aided and unaided sound field hearing was evaluated by 1) warble tone thresholds, 2) pure-tone average (PTA4), 3) speech discrimination score (SDS) in quiet, and 4) speech reception threshold 50% at 70 dB SPL noise level (SRT50%). Subjective outcome was evaluated by three questionnaires: 1) International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids, 2) Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale 12, and 3) a questionnaire on frequency and duration of use.

RESULTS: No major complications occurred. The mean aided PTA4 was lowered by 23dB. SDS was increased by 40% at 50dB, by 34% at 65dB, and by 12% at 80 dB SPL. SRT50% in noise improved 5.2 dB. 58% of the patients used the device daily and 83% at least 5 days a week. 50% used the device ≥ 8 hours and 75% ≥ 4  hours a day. Mean International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids score was 3.7, corresponding to beneficial outcome. In Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale 12, "quality of hearing" scored especially high. The con/mix hearing loss group showed larger benefit especially in SDS, SRT50% in noise and the subjective evaluations, whereas frequency and duration of use were similar.

CONCLUSION: This study on the first 12 Nordic patients implanted with a new transcutaneous bone conduction hearing device demonstrates significant objective, as well as subjective hearing benefit. Patient satisfaction was high, as was the frequency of use.