الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Amplification of sound by hearing aids bypasses the conductive deficit as well as delivering magnified sound to the remaining functioning hair cells in the cochlea. As it is well established that hearing aids are most effective for patients with mild to moderate hearing loss and cochlear implants are reserved for those with severe to profound hearing deficiencies, the group with moderate to severe hearing loss needed an innovative option to meet their needs; the use of implantable hearing systems. Bone conduction hearing devices are considered a subdivision of the implantable hearing solutions. Bone conduction devices are classified regarding their mechanism of action into active or passive, and regarding their way of sound conduction in relation to skin barrier into transcutaneous or percutaneous devices. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of BCHDs in rehabilitation of hearing loss. Also, we aimed at recording the postoperative skin complications and comparison of transcutaneous and percutaneous devices concerning this. This study was a prospective comparative cohort study conducted in the regional department of Otology and Neurotology – Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in the United Kingdom spanning the period between 1st December 2018 and 30th November 2020. Patients were recruited through the outpatient clinics of the otorhinolaryngology department, Royal Hallamshire Hospital. All patients attended the OPD via either a referral letter from their allocated General Practitioner or as internal referral from other general ENT clinics within the same department. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, seventy-four patients were recruited into our study; patients were allocated into two groups after counseling regarding type of device available, patient general assessment and patient preference of the device. Four patients were excluded from the study due to various reasons (two patients lost follow up, one patient discontinued using the device and one patient wasn‘t happy to be enrolled in the study), therefore the final number of patients included was 70 patients. |