Patients reported a significant improvement in speech intelligibility in noise and greater benefit from BAHA compared with CROS hearing aids. Patients were satisfied with the device and its impact on their quality of life. No major complications were reported. Conclusion and significance BAHA is effective in unilateral deafness. Auditory stimuli from the deaf side can be transmitted to the good ear, avoiding the limitations inherent in CROS amplification.

After more than 25 years of clinical experience, the BAHA (bone-anchored hearing aid) system is a well-established treatment for hearing-impaired patients with conductive or mixed hearing loss. Owing to its success, the use of the BAHA system has spread and the indications for application have gradually become broader. New indications, as well as clinical applications, were discussed during scientific roundtable meetings in 2004 by experts in the field, and the outcomes of these discussions are presented in the form of statements. The issues that were discussed concerned BAHA surgery, the fitting range of the BAHA system, the BAHA system compared to conventional devices, bilateral application, the BAHA system in children, the BAHA system in patients with single-sided deafness, and, finally, the BAHA system in patients with unilateral conductive hearing loss.

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