Perception of Discomfort Caused by a Unilateral Hearing Loss in People Suffering from a Total Bilateral Vestibular Loss

Abstract

The quality of life of patients suffering from a bilateral vestibular loss is severely altered. Patients mainly complain of oscillopsia, imbalance, and spatial disorientation. Up to now, there is no efficient treatment. Some teams around the world are working on the development of a vestibular implant for the restoration of the vestibular function based on the concept similar to that of a cochlear implant, stimulating the neural vestibular pathways through electrical pulses. There are different potential stimulation sites of the vestibular system, all raising the major concern about a potential hearing loss in the implanted ear. As this implant does not exist yet, patients cannot be informed of the risk of hearing loss due to the surgical intervention versus the benefits brought by the vestibular prosthesis. In order to better inform future vestibular implant candidates, we need to evaluate the handicap of patients with an actual unilateral hearing loss, and to compare it to the way that patients suffering from a bilateral vestibular loss perceive a potential unilateral hearing loss. For this, we used the HHIA questionnaire (Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults) on 3 groups of participants, i.e. patients with a unilateral hearing loss, patients suffering from a bilateral vestibular loss but having normal hearing, and healthy subjects. The scores reported by patients with a unilateral hearing loss were much lower than those of the other 2 groups, indicating that people whose hearing is normal overstate the disability related to a unilateral hearing loss. Patients to whom a vestibular implant is proposed in order to correct their balance disorders may use this information to decide whether or not to choose an operation.