[Bilateral bone anchored hearing aid management of children with external ear dysplasia and/or ear canal atresia]

Abstract

Background and objective: The literature gives hardly any information about the benefits for children of using a bilateral bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) as opposed to a bilateral conventional bone conducting hearing aid.

Patients and methods: Within a period of 12 years, three children were selected for treatment with bilateral BAHA. At the time of surgery, the children were aged between 8 and 10 years. Two of the children suffered from Franceschetti syndrome and one child from Goldenhar's syndrome. The clinical course of these three patients is presented.

Results: In all cases, treatment with BAHA was beneficial according to subjective and objective criteria despite localized inflammatory complications in two of the three cases.

Conclusions: The bilateral use of BAHA should be considered more frequently as an alternative to conventional bone conducting hearing aids even for children.