INTRODUCTION

Audiologists provide amplification to patients with hearing loss. Occasionally, a patient will present with unilateral hearing loss. Recently, the term single-sided deafness (SSD) has been introduced and is becoming increasingly more common. For the purposes of this issue of Seminars in Hearing, these two terms are interchangeable. A patient with SSD has normal hearing in one ear (i.e., hearing thresholds no greater than 20 dB hearing level at 250 to 4000 Hz) and profound or unaidable hearing loss in the opposite ear. The patient will therefore not receive/perceive benefit from a hearing aid on that ear (could be due to poor thresholds, poor word recognition, or inability to tolerate amplified sound on that side/ear).

In clinical practice, some audiologists may never see a patient with SSD, other audiologists may see such patients infrequently, and still other audiologists may see such patients quite often depending upon his or her site of employment. Audiologists working with an otologist specializing in skull-base tumors or audiologists working in a medical school will usually see more patients with SSD than those working at other sites. In either case, it is important for all audiologists to be knowledgeable about current fitting options for these patients. This issue of Seminars in Hearing provides audiologists and otolaryngologists with a comprehensive overview of the diagnosis and amplification options for children and adults having SSD.

When contacting possible authors for this issue, the coeditors carefully contacted peers for their advice on which professionals they believed to be the most knowledgeable about the content of the article. The articles are ordered in the sequence typically followed when a patient presents with SSD—that is, from diagnosis and then to discussing amplification options. Finally, both coeditors consider themselves more familiar with hearing health care for the adult patient than the pediatric patient. Much thought was given to approach and selecting the authors of the two articles (Judy Lieu on the medical aspects and Sarah McKay on the amplification options) dedicated to the pediatric patient.

The co-editors considered all known current (contralateral routing of the signal, transcranial, bone-anchored hearing aid, and TransEar [Ear Technology Corp, Johnson City, TN]) and future (SoundBite [Sonitus Medical Inc., San Mateo, CA] cochlear implants) amplification options for SSD. The coeditors then approached colleagues and peers deemed to be experts for those amplification options. Unfortunately, no article was prepared specifically addressing the TransEar fitting option, and no member of the Ear Technologies team was available to prepare an article due to other commitments. The authors also contacted members of Oticon Medical to inquire about their availability to prepare an article on their recent introduction of the Ponto and Ponto Pro (Gothenburg, Sweden), but time constraints did not allow members of Oticon Medical to prepare an article.

The coeditors would like to thank Catherine Palmer for the opportunity to prepare this issue of Seminars in Hearing. Her guidance and encouragement during the entire process were appreciated. The coeditors also would like to thank each author for agreeing to prepare individual articles. All these colleagues have very busy lives, both personally and professionally. It takes a considerable amount of time to develop, prepare, and submit a manuscript for publication. Then, there is the time spent on any revisions based upon the initial review. Finally, there is the time required to read the page proofs that are delivered to each author prior to publication to check for accuracy. All of this work is completed with the simple goal to share their expertise so their thoughts might improve the lives of all patients with SSD.