Introduction:
In clinical practice, the middle ear implant Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) has proven beneficial as a hearing rehabilitation device for inner ear, conductive or combined hearing impairment. The aim of the presented study is to investigate the possible benefit of VSB in children and adolescents.
Methods:
The pure-tone audiogram and speech perceptions of nine children and adolescents who were treated with a VSB at our clinic between 2008 and 2018 and were aged between 5 and 16 years at the time of surgery were retrospectively evaluated. The average age at surgery was 9.2 years. In eight patients the conductive hearing loss was due to congenital auditory canal atresia and in one patient it occurred after cholesteatomic surgery. The pre- and postoperative pure-tone audiograms as well as the assisted and unassisted word recognition at 65 dB SPL at least three months postoperatively were evaluated.
Results:
After implantation of the VSB, no significant changes in hearing thresholds were observed in all patients compared to the preoperative findings. There were no peri- or postoperative complications for all operations. The patients showed a significant improvement in word recognition of 61% (min. 20%, max. 90%) in the group mean.
Conclusions:
The VSB has proven to be an effective and safe method of treating conductive hearing loss in children and adolescents.
