Management of Functional Hearing Difficulties Using Low-Gain Amplification: Case Reports on Auditory Processing Evaluations

Functional hearing difficulties are common among both the civilian population and military personnel with hearing thresholds less than 25 dB HL, particularly those exposed to blasts or with mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs). These individuals often report significant hearing challenges in noisy environments, despite "normal" audiometric thresholds....

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For patients with near-normal hearing thresholds but significant listening complaints, trialing low-gain amplification combined with auditory processing evaluation is a reasonable and evidence-supported management strategy.

This work expands the evidence base for managing patients with auditory processing difficulties and near-normal audiograms, a common and underserved clinical presentation in both civilian and military populations.

1. 01Patients with near-normal hearing thresholds can still experience significant functional listening difficulties, often termed auditory processing difficulties.
2. 02Low-gain amplification (mild hearing aid amplification) was used as a management strategy in civilian and military populations.
3. 03Cases included auditory processing evaluations beyond standard pure-tone audiometry.
4. 04Military populations are specifically highlighted as a group at elevated risk for auditory processing difficulties.
5. 05Case report format limits generalizability, but findings support further investigation of low-gain amplification for this population.

PMID

42763566

DOI

10.3766/jaaa.250023.

Journal

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology

Publication type

case_report

Evidence level

4

Population

Civilian and military individuals with near-normal hearing thresholds and functional hearing difficulties

Intervention

Low-gain amplification combined with auditory processing evaluations