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A new active bone-conduction implant: surgical experiences and audiological outcomes in patients with bilateral congenital microtia

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

First-generation bone bridges (BBs) have demonstrated favorable safety and audiological benefits in patients with conductive hearing loss. However, studies on the effects of second-generation BBs are limited, especially among children. In this study, we aimed to explore the surgical and audiological effects of second-generation BBs in patients with bilateral congenital microtia.

Methods

This single-center prospective study included nine Mandarin-speaking patients with bilateral microtia. All the patients underwent BCI Generation 602 (BCI602; MED-EL, Innsbruck, Austria) implant surgery between September 2021 and June 2023. Audiological and sound localization tests were performed under unaided and BB-aided conditions.

Results

The transmastoid and retrosigmoid sinus approaches were implemented in three and six patients, respectively. No patient underwent preoperative planning, lifts were unnecessary, and no sigmoid sinus or dural compression occurred. The mean function gain at 0.5–4.0 kHz was 28.06 ± 4.55-dB HL. The word recognition scores improved significantly in quiet under the BB aided condition. Signal-to-noise ratio reduction by 10.56 ± 2.30 dB improved the speech reception threshold in noise. Patients fitted with a unilateral BB demonstrated inferior sound source localization after the initial activation.

Conclusions

Second-generation BBs are safe and effective for patients with bilateral congenital microtia and may be suitable for children with mastoid hypoplasia without preoperative three-dimensional reconstruction.

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Data, materials and/or code availability

The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 81770989) and the Capital Health Research and Development of Special (no. 2020-2-2057).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 1 Dongjiaomin Lane, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100730, China

    Peiwei Chen, Yujie Liu, Jinsong Yang, Danni Wang, Ran Ren, Ying Li, Lin Yang, Xinxing Fu, Ruijuan Dong & Shouqin Zhao

  2. Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology, Capital Medical University, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China

    Peiwei Chen, Yujie Liu, Jinsong Yang, Danni Wang, Ran Ren, Ying Li, Lin Yang, Xinxing Fu, Ruijuan Dong & Shouqin Zhao

Authors
  1. Peiwei Chen
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  2. Yujie Liu
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  4. Danni Wang
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  5. Ran Ren
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  10. Shouqin Zhao
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Contributions

Conceptualization: PC, SZ, DW, XF, RD; methodology: PC, LY, YL, JY; formal analysis and investigation: DW, RR, YL; writing—original draft preparation: PC; writing—review and editing: SZ; funding acquisition: SZ; resources: SZ, DW, XF, RD; supervision: DW.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shouqin Zhao.

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Conflict of interest

We have no financial disclosures that may pose or create a conflict of interest regarding the information presented in this article.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval for the execution of the present study was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee of Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University (no. Z171100001017079).

Informed consent

All the participants signed an informed consent form before surgery.

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Chen, P., Liu, Y., Yang, J. et al. A new active bone-conduction implant: surgical experiences and audiological outcomes in patients with bilateral congenital microtia. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-024-08523-1

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