Abutment-free bone-anchored hearing devices in children: initial results and experience.

OBJECTIVES Bone-anchored implantable hearing devices are widely accepted as a surgical option for certain types of hearing loss in both adults and children. Most commercially available devices involve a percutaneous abutment to which a sound processor attaches. The rate of complications with such bone conduction systems is greater than 20%. Most complications arise from the abutment. Recently, the Sophono (Boulder, CO) Alpha 1, an abutment-free system, has been introduced. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a retrospective chart review of the first five patients who underwent implantation with the Sophono abutment-free bone conduction hearing system with the Alpha 1 processor at our institution and report here on these patients' pre- and postoperative audiometric data and clinical courses. RESULTS Average improvement in pure-tone average was 32dB hearing loss and average improvement in speech response threshold was 28dB hearing loss. All patients were responding in the normal to mild hearing loss range in the operated ear after device activation. Average improvement across individual frequencies was between 17 and 37dB (SD 5.5-11dB). CONCLUSION Our audiometric results to date are promising and have been consistent with published data on other bone-anchored hearing devices.