Audiometric results of bilateral bone-anchored hearing aid application in patients with bilateral congenital aural atresia

The effect of bilateral application of bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHAs) was examined in terms of directional healing and speech recognition in quiet and in noise in four patients with bilateral congenital atresia who, out of pure necessity, had been using a uailateral bone-conduction hearing aid since early life. This study comprised a prospective clinical evaluation in a single subject; design; four patients with bilateral congenital atresia originating from the Nijmegen BAHA series participated. Three patients had Treacher Collins syndrome, All four patients had conductive, most probably, symmetrical, hearing loss, Recently these patients had applied far a second BAHA and were subsequently fitted bilaterally. With two BAHAs, all four patients showed significant improvement in sound localization. Also, speech perception in quiet showed significant improvement with bilateral application, and a significant improvement was found in speech perception in noise in three patients. These results suggest that patients with congenital conductive, symmetrical hearing loss will benefit from bilateral BAHAs.