This systematic review compares bilateral to unilateral bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHAs) on outcomes of hearing, quality-of-life, or adverse events in individuals with bilateral permanent conductive hearing loss.
No funding received
1977-July 2011
Case series; case-control studies; cohort studies; randomized control trials
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"Currently, there is no evidence available for comparison of the financial costs and risks of adverse events of bilateral versus unilateral [bone-anchored hearing aids] BAHA" (p. 147).
Bilateral [bone-anchored hearing aids] BAHA provide improved hearing sensitivity and speech perception in quiet and improved localization and lateralization compared to unilateral BAHA. However, some BAHA users were found to have poorer speech-in-noise perception with bilateral fitting as a result of the loss of the head-shadow advantage for noise to the shadow ear. Therefore, clinicians should counsel patients that they may have reduced speech understanding in noisy environments and suggest that BAHA users turn off the BAHA that faces the noise.
