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78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2007, Munich

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Results and patients satisfaction after implantation of the fully implantable hearing system Otologics MET in patients with congenital auricular atresia

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  • corresponding author Stefan Mattheis - ENT Department, Head and Neck Surgery, Prosper-Hospital, Recklinghausen, Germany
  • author Ralf Siegert - ENT Department, Head and Neck Surgery, Prosper-Hospital, Recklinghausen, Germany

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Munich, 16.-20.05.2007. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2007. Doc07hno058

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hno2007/07hno058.shtml

Published: August 8, 2007

© 2007 Mattheis et al.
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Outline

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Congenital auricular atresia is a malformation with an incidence of 1:8000. Whereas the inner ear anatomy and function is normal in most of these patients, they suffer from a conductive hearing loss with an air-bone gap of 60 dB. Conventional bone conducting hearing aids or bone anchored hearing aids (BAHA) are current treatment options with several disadvantages. Surgical construction of the sound conducting apparatus has been performed by others and modified by us into a three-step procedure with in-vivo prefabrication of the external ear canal and the tympanic membrane (Laryngoscope 113, 2021 – 2029, 2003). Although the results improved after inauguration of our modifications, there still remains an air-bone gap that makes air conducting hearing aids necessary in many patients.

We have modified the surgical instruments, the transducer and the operative technique of the only fully implantable hearing aid (Otologics Fully-Implantable MET) clinically available and implanted it in five patients with congenital auricular atresia.

After activation and fitting of the devices we see an improvement of the sound-field thresholds up to 50 dB HL. The mean functional gain in a three frequency pure tone average is about 38 dB HL. The discrimination rate in speech testing rises about 72%. Subscales of the APHAB show a significant improvement. Patients satisfaction is high, regarding the results of the used questionnaire.

The use of fully implantable hearing systems is a new promising therapy option in patients with congenital auricular dysplasia.