BACKGROUND Some patients have to stop using their air-conduction hearing aid(s) because it causes or exacerbates chronic otitis. Then, a solution is the use of a bone-conduction hearing aid such as the percutaneous bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA). OBJECTIVE To compare patients' performance with their previous air-conduction hearing aid(s) and their BAHA using audiometric tests and a question...

INTRODUCTION Patients with air-bone gaps who cannot be corrected successfully by tympanoplasty or with mixed hearing loss may be treated with bone conduction hearing aids. Their disadvantages are the obvious external fixation components or the biological and psychosocial problems of open implants. We have developed new partially implantable bone conduction hearing aid without a percutaneous abu...

OBJECTIVE To validate the air- and bone-conduction AMTAS automated audiometry system. DESIGN Prospective study. Test-retest reliability was determined by assessing adults with AMTAS air- and bone-conduction audiometry. Accuracy was determined by comparing AMTAS and manual audiometry conducted on adults. AMTAS testing was conducted in a quiet room and manual audiometry in a sound booth. STUD...

Hearing sensations are caused by air- and bone-guided sound. Of course, other biological materials like tendons, muscles and tissue are also involved during conduction of sound. To study the influence of bone conduction, a formerly developed finite element model was excited by harmonic pressure signals at the cochlea wall. The clinical finding during middle ear surgery, namely the increase in b...