Bone Anchored Hearing Aids

Making connections.

Bone Anchored Hearing Aids

The Auditory Implant Service welcomes referrals for consideration for a bone anchored hearing aid for patients who have a range of hearing losses that may be conductive, mixed or sensorineural. The service includes assessment, implantation and life long follow-up for bone anchored hearing aid recipients.

What is it?

Who is it for?

A bone anchored hearing aid system (BAHA) is a device which converts sound waves into sound vibrations which are delivered directly to the inner ear through the skull bone. It uses the principle of bone conduction.

The BAHA comprises a vibration transducer which is coupled to a titanium implant surgically fixed to the temporal bone of the skull. In normal hearing, sound is transmitted to the inner ear by air through the external ear canal and the bones of the middle ear, this is called air conduction. People who are unable to hear using air conduction are able to receive sound by bone conduction using a BAHA.

The main indications for BAHA are: Permanent bilateral conductive or mixed hearing loss.

Bilateral conductive or mixed hearing loss where one ear works better than the other, but clinicians would have considered two air conduction hearing aids if the type of hearing loss had not precluded their use.

Unilateral conductive hearing loss with ear canal stenosis.

Profound unilateral sensorineural hearing loss.

The following audiological criteria should be met: Conductive or mixed hearing loss with a bone conduction pure tone average (0.5, 1,2, 3,kHZ) threshold up to 65dB. Air conduction pure tone average not better than 40dBHL (for Adults).

A maximum speech discrimination score better that 60% when using a phonetically balanced word list.

Patient benefit Patients report the following benefits: No discomfort or infections due to ear moulds Less distortion and feedback

Components of a bone anchored hearing aid

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Better overall sound awareness for single-sided deafness Improved speech understanding in noise

“The BAHA system offers clear benefit for individuals who cannot wear conventional hearing aids because of repeated infection and in single-sided deafness.�

Tim Mitchell, Consultant ENT Surgeon

Contact us Please feel free to contact us for further information.

All enquiries to: Bone Anchored Hearing Aid Programme University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service Building 19 Highfield Southampton so17 1bj United Kingdom

Bone anchored hearing aid in place

Telephone: 023 8059 3522 Fax: 023 8059 9608 SMS: 07887 790 765 Email: ais@southampton.ac.uk

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www.southampton.ac.uk/ais ais@southampton.ac.uk +44 (0)23 8059 3522