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The vibrating ossicular prosthesis in children and adolescents: a retrospective study

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The primary objective of the retrospective study was to collect speech intelligibility data on children and adolescents implanted with the vibrating ossicular prosthesis (VORP) 503.

Methods

This was a retrospective, multicentre study on 55 children and adolescents from 6 German clinics aged between 5 and 17 years suffering from mixed or conductive hearing loss implanted with a VORP 503. Pre- and postoperative bone-conduction pure tone thresholds were measured at 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz, and word recognition scores in the unaided and VORP 503-aided conditions using monosyllabic speech intelligibility tests measured at 65-dB sound pressure level (SPL) were determined.

Results

Mean pre- and postoperative bone-conduction thresholds remained unchanged, showing the preservation of inner ear hearing. Speech intelligibility assessed in quiet at 65-dB SPL improved on average from 24.5% (SD ± 25.4) unaided to 86.4% (SD ± 13.4) aided. The average improvement of 61.9% (SD ± 25.3) was clinically and statistically significant. A total of three complications were found in the medical records of 55 subjects. The responsible investigators judged these events as procedure related.

Conclusion

The treatment of children suffering from conductive or mixed hearing loss with the VORP 503 implant demonstrates excellent aided benefit in terms of speech understanding and only minor complications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Clinic of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Technical University of Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany

    Susen Lailach & Thomas Zahnert

  2. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Cochlear Implant Centre, Catholic Hospital Koblenz-Montabaur, Koblenz, Germany

    Jan Maurer

  3. Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Munich, Campus Großhadern, Munich, Germany

    John-Martin Hempel

  4. Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Plastic Surgery, University Hospital Stuttgart, Olgahospital, Stuttgart, Germany

    Assen Koitschev

  5. Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany

    Daniela Hollfelder, Henning Frenzel & Barbara Wollenberg

  6. Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Susan Arndt

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  1. Susen Lailach
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  2. Thomas Zahnert
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susen Lailach.

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Conflict of interest

MED-EL, Innsbruck, Austria initiated and organized this study and gave support for statistical analysis and manuscript preparation. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Since the present work was a retrospective study, all procedures involving human participants were performed before data collection. According to the law and the national ethical guidelines, ethical approvals were obtained.

Informed consent

The present retrospective data collection was not subject to prior consent from the device user, as personally identifiable information was irreversibly anonymized by the respective study site.

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Lailach, S., Zahnert, T., Maurer, J. et al. The vibrating ossicular prosthesis in children and adolescents: a retrospective study. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 277, 55–60 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-019-05667-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-019-05667-3

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