ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this study was to evaluate functional hearing gain, speech understanding, and preoperative bone-conduction thresholds with the bone-conduction implant Bonebridge. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study at a tertiary referral center. METHODS: Twenty-four consecutive Bonebridge patients were identified. Nine patients suffered from combined hearing loss (HL), 12 from atresia of the external auditory canal and three from single-sided deafness. One patient was lost to follow-up. Twenty-three patients were therefore analyzed. RESULTS: The overall average functional hearing gain of all patients (n = 23) was 28.8 dB (±16.1 standard deviation [SD]). Monosyllabic word scores at 65 dB sound pressure level in quiet increased statistically significantly from 4.6 (±7.4 SD) percentage points to 53.7 (±23.0 SD) percentage points. Evaluation of preoperative bone-conduction thresholds revealed three patients with thresholds higher than 45 dB HL in the high frequencies starting at 2 kHz. These three patients had a very limited benefit of their bone-conduction implants. CONCLUSIONS: The Bonebridge bone-conduction implant provides satisfactory results concerning functional gain and speech perception if preoperative bone conduction lies within 45 dB HL. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.
