Baha as a Solution for Single-Sided Deafness after Vestibular Schwannoma Surgery

Single-sided deafness (SSD) impairs quality of life in vestibular schwannoma surgery (VS) patients. The SSD patients suffer from multiple audiological difficulties, inability to identify a direction of a sound and to discriminate sounds coming from the affected side, presenting particularly as an impairment of speech recognition in noisy environments, are the most disabling. The Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid (Baha) represents the most effective option for rehabilitation of hearing in SSD patients. This device transforms sound into vibrations that are directly conducted to the cranial bones using a titanium implant. Thanks to a firm anchoring of the implant to the bone by a process of osseointegration, vibration energy is conveyed into the fluid of the inner ear. In SSD patients, the sound is transferred from the impaired side into the functioning contralateral cochlea. Nine SSD patients after VS surgery had been implanted between September 2010 and December 2011. The quality of life in SSD patients was evaluated with a questionnaire. 89% of our patients use Baha every day for 8 to 12 hours. Baha is the only known effective solution for SSD patients.