Patients’ opinions on bilateral bone anchored hearing aid fitting

Introduction. Patients’ opinions on bilateral bone-anchored hearing air (BAHA) fitting compared to unilateral fitting were evaluated. Patients and methods. A study was carried out of 11 patients who had been using a unilateral BAHA before being fitted bilaterally. All patients showed conductive or mixed hearing loss, with an (almost) symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss component. Four out of the 11 patients had bilateral congenital aural atresia and the rest of the patients had a history of chronic otitis media. All 11 patients filled in two questionnaires. Questionnaire 1 consisted of questions about thepatients’ preference in different listening situations. It was filled in 10 weeks after bilateral BAHA fitting. Questionnaire 2 consisted of questions that compared the previous situation (with only a unilateral BAHA) to the situation with the more recent bilateral BAHA application. This questionnaire was filled in before and 10 weeks after bilateral fitting. Results. Ten out of the 11 patients clearly favoured the bilateral BAHA above unilateral. Conclusion. Eight patients were very satisfied and three patients were satisfied with the second BAHA. These positive results agreed with the previously found positive audiological results.