The Lübeck Flowchart for Functional and Aesthetic Rehabilitation of Aural Atresia and Microtia

Abstract

Active middle ear implants allow early and selective stimulation of the auditory pathway in children with congenital conductive hearing loss and are expected to lead to the normal development of the binaural hearing functions. To date, it is the only option if the stimulation is to be started at the age of 12 to 18 months. This was implemented into a new flowchart for aural atresia-microtia.

A Tutorial on Implantable Hearing Amplification Options for Adults with Unilateral Microtia and Atresia

“…However, these findings are not unexpected, given that the contralateral ear exhibits normal hearing ability. The patient also reported good sound quality and comfort and he accepted the appearance of the aids as was often reported in previous studies [10]. Y.H.…”

“…With the VSB set at the most comfortable listening level, it was also shown that VSB offered functional gains of 5 to 20 dB across the frequencies from 500 Hz to 4 kHz, when compared with the unaided thresholds (Figure 4). The amount of functional gain was less than that (45.5 dB) reported by Frenzel et al [10]. However, the gain could not be adjusted to a higher volume setting because of intolerance.…”

“…However, the gain could not be adjusted to a higher volume setting because of intolerance. Aided thresholds ranged from 35 to 50 dBHL, which is slightly worse than those reported in the literature [10]. …”

Guideline “Implantable hearing aids”—short version

“…For preoperative planning and positioning of bone conduction hearing aids, CTbased simulations could be helpful [2,23,31]. The implantation of a hearing aid should be performed considering possible plastic reconstructive surgery of the pinna at a later stage [6,9,11].…”

A Case of the Vibrant Soundbridge Implantation to Unilateral Congenital Aural Atresia

“…This option is for those with unilateral aural atresia without speech and language developmental delay [12]. There was a controversy about how much we should do for patients with unilateral congenital aural atresia, as they usually had normal hearing on the contralateral side.…”