Abstract
We performed a multicenter clinical study to compare the efficacy of bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) with that of conventional air- or bone- conduction hearing aids by means of the APHAB questionnaire survey of patients at 9 hospitals between 2006 and 2008. In all, 26 patients with mixed or conductive hearing loss (including 16 using air-conduction hearing aids and 10 using bone-conduction hearing aids) and 3 patients with unilateral inner ear deafness (including 2 using an air-conduction hearing aid and 1 using a bone-conduction hearing aid) were provided with BAHAs. The questionnaire was administered 1-4 weeks before the surgery and after 12 weeks of experience with the BAHAs. The scores for the communication subscales (ease of communication, background noise, and reverberation), satisfaction, and usefulness on the APHAB were higher with the BAHAs, while the score for the aversiveness subscale was lower. Thus, BAHAs represent a good alternative for conventional air- or bone-conduction hearing aids if the efficacy of the conventional hearing aids is ambiguous.
