Question
Have there been any retrospective clinical studies on patients who have had bone-anchored hearing systems to compare techniques and look at outcomes?
Answer
Yes, at Oticon Medical, we completed a retrospective implant study before we launched our wide implant (Babu, McKinnon, Fucci, Sockalingam, & Jerby, 2012). There were a total of 98 patients recruited through Arizona Hearing and Balance, Georgia Health Sciences University, and Michigan Ear Institute. The mean age for patients was 51.5 years. The gender distribution was 39% male and 61% female. We were looking for patient demographics, length of the abutment used, and the surgical technique to see if the surgeons were leaning towards the linear technique versus the old-school dermatome technique, or even using a manual flap at that point.
We also wanted to look at the incidence of skin reactions, implant extrusion, and revision surgeries that were needed. There was 0% of implant loss, which is great for the initial implant, and 0% revision surgeries. Most or 98% of the implants used were 4 mm. The abutment length of 9 mm was 31% versus the standard 6 mm at 69%. We are seeing that people are starting to move towards 9 mm and 12mm. We saw that 96% of the surgeries were performed with a linear incision with minimal tissue reduction, versus the flap or the elliptical approach, which is a manual flap that they make using just a scalpel. One-hundred percent of the surgeries were done in one stage. About 85% of the patients had no skin reactions. In the 15% who did have reactions, all of them were treated and managed through standard care within the clinic. There were no surgical revisions or changes in abutment sizes. The full study is available at:
https://www.oticonmedical.com/~asset/cache.ashx?id=11513&type=14&format=web
For more information on bone-anchored hearing systems, please refer to our course, Audiological Considerations of the Ponto Bone-anchored Hearing System Before and After Surgery, which is available as both a recorded course and a text course on AudiologyOnline, or visit oticonmedical.com or the Oticon Medical Expo Page on AudiologyOnline.
Reference
Babu, S., McKinnon, B., Fucci, M., Sockalingam, R., & Jerby, K.I. (2012). The Ponto bone anchored implant system: A survey of clinical outcomes. Oticon white paper. Retrieved from: https://www.oticonmedical.com/~asset/cache.ashx?id=11513&type=14&format=web.
