Artikel
Indications and limits of bone anchored hearing aids (BAHA)
Indikationen und Grenzen der BAHA-Versorgung
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Autoren
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Philipp A. Federspil
- University Hospital Heidelberg, Otorhinolaryngology, Heidelberg, Germany
| Veröffentlicht: | 7. September 2006 |
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Gliederung
Text
The bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) enables painless hearing all day long, and in better sound quality.
Classic indications of BAHA include i) major ear malformation, ii) chronic otorrhea (chronic external otitis, or draining mastoid cavity e.g.), iii) other conductive hearing loss without the option of surgical restoration of hearing (e.g. the last hearing ear) and iv) impossible fitting of an air conduction hearing aid (e.g. acoustic feedback). A new indication is v) Contralateral Routing Of Signals (CROS) via bone conduction in single sided deafness.
Personal experience includes over 170 BAHAs including 30 children and 46 bilateral fittings. 96% of bilaterally fitted patients actually wear both BAHAs all day long. 2 patients were successfully fitted bilaterally with the BAHA Cordelle II. Especially children progress dramatically in their development.
With the BAHA Cordelle II, a mixed hearing loss with an average sensorineural hearing loss component of up to 70 dB HL can be fitted. However, care should be taken to assure that speech discrimination scores of at least 60% are achieved. The digital BAHA Divino has been released on the market.
In summary, the BAHA is a reliable and safe hearing system. It represents a great progress.
