To explore speech performance in multi-talker environments, subjective satisfaction with hearing and spatial ability, and factors influencing outcomes in patients with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (USNHL) fitted with conventional hearing aids (HAs).
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Audiologists fitting patients with single-sided sensorineural hearing loss should review the full outcomes data when published, as comparative speech-in-noise and spatial hearing findings may inform device selection counseling for this population.
Unilateral sensorineural hearing loss is often underfitted, and direct functional comparisons between air- and bone-conduction conventional aids can guide more evidence-based device recommendations.
- 01Study compares conventional air-conduction and bone-conduction hearing aids specifically in unilateral sensorineural hearing loss.
- 02Speech-in-noise performance in multi-talker settings is a primary outcome — a real-world listening challenge.
- 03Spatial hearing (localization) is evaluated, a common deficit in single-sided hearing loss.
- 04Subjective patient satisfaction is also measured alongside objective performance.
- 05Published in a peer-reviewed ENT journal (DOI: 10.1007/s00405-026-10705-y).
Conventional air-conduction and bone-conduction hearing aids differ in speech performance outcomes for unilateral sensorineural hearing loss patients in multi-talker environments.
studyunclearConventional hearing aid options affect spatial hearing outcomes in patients with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss.
studyunclear- PMID
- 42900203
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00405-026-10705-y.
- Journal
- European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Patients with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss fitted with conventional hearing aids
- Intervention
- Conventional air-conduction hearing aids or bone-conduction hearing aids
- Comparator
- Cross-comparison between air-conduction and bone-conduction devices
Primary outcomes
Speech performance in multi-talker environments; Subjective satisfaction; Spatial hearing outcomes