Evaluation of Preoperative Hearing-in-Noise Protocol for Osseointegrated Hearing Implants

Abstract

Evaluate the clinical use of a preoperative protocol using hearing-in-noise improvement as measured by Adaptive HINT and Quick SIN in patients undergoing ossseointegrated hearing implantation for single-sided deafness (SSD). Prospective cohort. Tertiary academic hospital and clinic. All consecutive English-speaking patients with SSD undergoing osseointegrated hearing implantation whom we have preoperative and postoperative Quick SIN and Adaptive HINT measurements. Measure preoperative unaided and aided (headband simulator) hearing-in-noise ratio improvement and compare with postoperative results. The improvement in hearing-in-noise in preoperative unaided to aided and then correlate to postoperative hearing-in-noise results. Total of 12 patients participated in the study. There was a statistically significant improvement from preoperative unaided Quick SIN and Adaptive HINT scores to preoperative aided scores (p = 0.001 and p = 0.004). There was statistically significant improvement from preoperative unaided Quick SIN and adaptive HINT to postoperative implant scores (p = 0.002 and p = 0.003). Comparing preoperative aided with postoperative implant aided, there demonstrated a significant improvement in QuickSIN with -2.7 SNR (p = 0.045) and in HINT with -2.35 dB (p = 0.05). This is the first study evaluating a preoperative protocol using both Quick SIN and Adaptive HINT testing for osseointegrated hearing implantation. Postoperatively, there was a statistically significant improvement in both of the hearing-in-noise measures. There was significant correlation between the preoperative simulator and postoperative hearing-in-noise measures signifying the benefit of using Quick SIN and HINT as a predictive preoperative tool to evaluate surgical candidacy and improve patient education and expectations.