Abstract
The bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) is surgically implanted into the temporal bone behind the ear in patients with conductive hearing loss or mixed hearing loss, when middle ear surgery or conventional hearing aids are not feasible. Many reports of the results of questionnaire surveys have indicated significantly superior subjective improvement with bone-anchored hearing aids as compared with that obtained with conventional hearing aids. However, there have been no reports of objective evaluation yet as speech tests in quiet and noisy environments were not yet sensitive to detect the significant improvement, because the evaluation methods and test conditions were not unified.
Recently, an indication for the application of BAHA in patients with single-sided unilateral deafness has been developed. The potential benefits indicated were the improved hearing in noisy conditions and elimination of the head shadow effect. The patients with unilateral deafness were very satisfied with the BAHA results. Although many reports showed poor sound localization with the use of the BAHA, the testing paradigm does not a testing paradigm cannot replicate real-life experiences. Further studies to evaluate sound localization in this patient population will be required.
