A Systematic Review of the Audiological Efficacy of Cartilage Conduction Hearing Aids and the Factors Influencing Their Clinical Application
Audiology Research
Li, B., Lee, S., et al. (2023).
Audiology Research, 13(4), 636-650.
This systematic review investigates the efficacy of cartilage conduction hearing aid (CC-HA) in patients with hearing loss.
Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation; Cardiff Metropolitan University Research Innovation Award (United Kingdom); Global Academies Research and Innovation Development Fund (United Kingdom)
May 2004 to April 2023
Published, English-language clinical trials. Excludes review articles, conference abstracts, editorials, opinion pieces, and letters to the editor.
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CC-HAs demonstrate improvements in hearing thresholds, speech recognition, and overall hearing ability in patients with various types of hearing loss. Overall, synchronized aided hearing thresholds at frequencies ranging from 0.5 to 4.0 kHZ show a significant difference (<em>p</em><0.0005). "Both the synchronised aided hearing thresholds and functional gain at 2.0 kHz were significantly better than those at the frequencies of 0.5, 1.0, and 4.0 kHz" (p. 648). In aided patients with various ear canal pathologies, CC-HAs resulted in significant functional gains (<em>p</em><0.005). "The synchronised functional gain in patients with atresia was significantly greater than those with stenosis and middle ear pathologies but with normal ear canals (<em>p</em><0.005). However, there was no significant difference in the gain between the stenosis group and the patients with normal ear canals (<em>p</em>>0.05)" (p. 644). The authors conclude that "although CC-HAs do not demonstrate advantages in terms of functional gain in comparison to existing [bone conduction hearing devices] BCHDs, due to its fitting procedure advantages and cosmetic considerations, CC-HAs are shown as a viable and advantageous choice for some patients with aural atresia or microtia" (p. 648).
