Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg.  2017 Aug;60(8):411-415. 10.3342/kjorl-hns.2017.16243.

A Case of the Vibrant Soundbridge Implantation to Unilateral Congenital Aural Atresia

• Cho YS
• Choi JE
• Cho YS

• KMID: 2390899
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3342/kjorl-hns.2017.16243

Abstract

Middle ear implantation is indicted for patients who have sensorineural, conductive or mixed hearing loss when conventional surgery or hearing aids do not producde sufficient improvement. This study reports the long-term results of an active middle ear implant, the Vibrant Soundbridge® (VSB) implantation, in a patient with unilateral congenital aural atresia (CAA). VSB was implanted for hearing rehabilitation after failed canaloplasty in a 15-year-old girl. After exposure of deformed ossicle, the floating mass tranceducer was coupled to the stapes head and subsequent subtotal petrosectomy was completed. Preoperative pure-tone air conduction threshold was 68.8 dB, which improved to 15 dB at one year of surgery. The mean aided free field speech discrimination in quiet was 98%. The speech understanding in noise evaluated by the composite score of Hearing-In-Noise test improved from SNR −2.5 dB to −5.2 dB. We present a first report of VSB implantation in a patient with unilateral CAA in Korea. The patient showed a significant hearing gain after the implantation of VSB; moreover, her hearing in noisy environment also showed improvement.

Keyword

Aural atresia; Congenital; Hearing impairment; Middle ear implant

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Female
Head
Hearing
Hearing Aids
Hearing Loss
Hearing Loss, Mixed Conductive-Sensorineural
Humans
Korea
Noise
Ossicular Prosthesis
Rehabilitation
Speech Perception
Stapes