A Transcutaneous Active Middle Ear Implant (AMEI) in Children and Adolescents: Long-term, Multicenter Results.

Objective: Evaluation of the long-term safety and performance of an active middle ear implant (AMEI) in the treatment of hearing loss in children and adolescents with a primary focus on improvement in speech discrimination.

Study Design: Prospective, multicentric, single-subject repeated-measures design in which each subject serves as his or her own control.

Subjects: Thirty-one pediatric subjects aged 5 to 17 years.

The Vibrant Soundbridge in Children and Adolescents: Preliminary European Multicenter Results.

Objective: Evaluation of safety and efficacy of the Vibrant Soundbridge in the treatment of hearing loss in children and adolescents with primary focus on improvement in speech discrimination.

Study Design: Prospective, single-subject repeated-measures design in which each subject serves as his/her own control.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

A soft-surgery approach to minimize hearing damage caused by the insertion of a cochlear implant electrode: a guinea pig animal model.

Objective: A "soft surgery" technique was applied, using various types of specifically designed dummy electrodes, to mimic cochlear implantation in a guinea pig model, and the degree of hearing-preservation/cochlear damage was assessed.

Methods: Tricolor guinea pigs were divided into 3 groups: group A were implanted with electrodes without any contacts or wires (soft electrode), group B were implanted with electrodes having a metallic wire inside (stiff electrode), and group C underwent a cochleostomy procedure without implantation. Compound action potentials, in the range of 4 to 32 kHz, were used to assess electrophysiologic changes in the hearing function presurgery and postsurgery.

Speech-in-noise and subjective benefit with active middle ear implant omnidirectional and directional microphones: a within-subjects comparison.

Objectives: 1) To evaluate speech understanding in noise by comparing signal-to-noise ratios for 50% correct word understanding (SNR50) using an omnidirectional and a directional microphone audio processor (AP) in 4 different noise conditions. 2) To compare subjective speech understanding abilities, spatial hearing abilities, and qualitative hearing performance with the 2 processors.

Study Design: A prospective, single-subjects repeated-measures study design was used to compare speech understanding performance with the 2 APs acutely and after 6 weeks' acclimatization time.

International consensus on Vibrant Soundbridge® implantation in children and adolescents.

Objective: Active middle ear implants augment hearing in patients with sensorineural, conductive, and mixed hearing losses with great success. However, the application of active middle ear implants has been restricted to compromised ears in adults only. Recently, active middle ear implants have been successfully implanted in patients younger than 18 years of age with all types of hearing losses.

Threshold estimation in adult normal- and impaired-hearing subjects using auditory steady-state responses.

Background: The aim of the study was to compare the estimation of hearing threshold values by behavioral and electrophysiological (ASSR) methods in subjects with normal hearing and those with sensorineural hearing impairment.

Material/methods: Thirty-two subjects (17 male and 15 female) were tested, with a total of 61 ears. Of these, 11 (22 ears) presented normal hearing threshold values (0-19 dBHL) and 21 (39 ears) sensorineural deficits.

Coupling the Vibrant Soundbridge to cochlea round window: auditory results in patients with mixed hearing loss.

Objective: To assess the functional results of the Vibrant Soundbridge (VBS) placed on the round window (RW) in patients with mixed hearing loss.

Study Design: Retrospective evaluation of functional hearing, with measurements performed 7 to 9 months postoperatively.

Settings: Two tertiary referral hospital centers.