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Despite the introduction of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS), unilateral hearing loss (UHL) is sometimes recognized late. This diagnostic delay has adverse repercussions, given the importance of binaural hearing for the development of normal auditory processing. It is incorrect to maintain that unilateral hearing is the minimum requirement for adequate speech development and that hearing aid provision is consequently unnecessary. In our retrospective study, hearing aid provision resulted in improved directional and selective hearing (quiet and noisy environments) and, compared with their chronically ill counterparts, the children in our study displayed superior health-related quality of life (HRQoL) scores in all areas. On the basis of the results, the authors conclude that even mild hearing losses (from an auditory threshold of 30 to 40 dB) should have the opportunity for hearing aid provision. A selective literature review was conducted in PubMed and textbooks and with reference to national and international guidelines. Early diagnosis and treatment of UHL have a positive effect on verbal-cognitive, linguistic, communicative, and socio-emotional development, as demonstrated by neurophysiological studies. Among the treatment modalities with differing effects on the quality of binaural hearing, cochlear implants are now used increasingly in children with hearing loss bordering on deafness. Conclusion : Published evidence and clinical experience support early diagnosis and treatment. Wherever feasible, hearing aid provision before or at the end of the first year of life is recommended for children with UHL. What is Known: • Almost 30 years ago, poor academic performance was reported in children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) . • Despite improvements in treatment options, it is traditionally held that unilateral hearing is the minimum requirement for adequate speech development and hearing aid provision is unnecessary . What is New: • Academic and behavioral deficits in children with UHL may be mediated by deficiencies in the default mode network . • Published evidence supports the recommendation for hearing aid provision before or at the end of the first year of life in children with UHL .

More and more patients with residual hearing on the contralateral side are becoming candidates for cochlear implants (CI) surgery due to increasing CI. The major benefits of regular binaural hearing are spatial hearing, localization, and signal source discrimination in both quiet and noisy surroundings. In most of the reports, hearing aid fitting was carried out without balancing both the devices. Twelve children and eight adults with residual hearing on the non-operated side were binaurally fitted. Our fitting procedure for the hearing aid was based on the desired sensation level [i/o] method. A loudness scaling was used to adjust the loudness perception monaurally and to balance the volume of both devices. Speech audiometry in quiet and noisy surroundings was conducted both monaurally and in the bimodal mode. The fitting was modified according to the respective test results. In all children and six adults, a measurable gain and/or a subjective improvement of speech perception was achieved. Two adult patients did not accept the new fitting. In seven younger children, loudness scaling was impossible to perform because of age. This was also the case with speech audiometry for two children. A structured bimodal fitting using loudness scaling for both the cochlear implant and the hearing aid results in a subjective and objective amelioration of the patient’s hearing and speech perception.

Purpose An adult version of an app giving users the control over the level of the volume, microphone directionality and noise reduction was adapted for children. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of changes made to microphone directionality and noise reduction in the myPhonak Junior (the app) on Speech intelligibility in challenging listening environments in children and teens. Methods The randomized, non-blinded interventional study with a single group of subjects involved two study visits with a home trial in-between. In the final study session speech assessment in noise was conducted in three different, randomly assigned conditions: default mode (Autosense Sky OS), preffered (self-adjusted) and the extreme condition. Questionnaire based assessment was conducted to assess the subjective benefit of using the app in different daily situations. Results The best scores (speech results in noise) were achieved with the preferred setting and the default Autosense Sky OS setting was significantly better than the extreme setting. The self-reported benefit through the questionnaire indicates significantly better result when adjusting the hearing aids through the app. Conclusion The app is an easy-to-use way of controlling the level of noise reduction and the beam forming for children 11 years and older. It has the potential to help customizing the hearing aids beyond the default setting and helping to improve speech understanding in noise.

Tinnitus is a common symptom reported in otolaryngologic practice. Although the pathophysiology of tinnitus has not been fully understood, clinical studies suggest that psychological symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization are increased in tinnitus patients. However, patients seeking medical treatment for tinnitus may be especially vulnerable. Population-based studies reporting on the association between tinnitus and psychological distress are still lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation of tinnitus with depression, anxiety, or somatization in a large population-based cohort. The Gutenberg Health Study is a population-based cohort study. Participants were asked about the occurrence of tinnitus (yes/no) and how much they were bothered by it. In addition, they completed the PHQ-9, GAD-7, and SSS-8 questionnaires to assess depressive symptoms, anxiety, and somatic symptom disorders. A total of 8539 participants were included in the study cohort. Tinnitus prevalence was 28.0% (2387). The prevalence of depression/anxiety/somatic symptom disorders was significantly higher among participants with tinnitus than among participants without tinnitus (7.9%/5.4%/40.4% participants with tinnitus vs. 4.6%/3.3%/26.9% participants without tinnitus, p-value < 0.0001). Logistic regression results showed that participants with tinnitus were more likely to suffer from depression (OR = 2.033, 95% CI [1.584; 2.601], p-value < 0.0001), anxiety (OR = 1.841, 95% CI [1.228; 2.728], p-value = 0.0027), or somatic symptom disorders (OR = 2.057, 95% CI [1.799; 2.352], p-value < 0.0001). Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatic symptom disorders were increased in participants with tinnitus. This must be taken into account when treating these patients.

Background For patients with single sided deafness (SSD) or severe asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss (ASHL), cochlear implantation remains the only solution to restore bilateral hearing capacity. Prognostically, the duration of hearing loss in terms of audiological outcome is not yet clear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to retrospectively investigate the influence of subjective deafness duration on postoperative speech perception after cochlear implantation for SSD as well as its impact on quality of life. Materials and methods The present study included a total of 36 adults aged 50.2 ± 15.5 years who underwent CI for SSD/ASHL at our clinic between 2010 and 2015. Patients were audiometrically assessed at 3 and 12–36 months postoperatively. Test results were correlated with self-reported duration of deafness. Quality of life was assessed by questionnaire. Results Mean duration of deafness was 193.9 ± 185.7 months. The side-separated hearing threshold showed an averaged target range between 30 and 40 dB HL. Freiburg monosyllable test increased from 0% pre-operatively to 20% after 3 months ( p  = 0.001) and to 50% after 12–36 months ( p  = 0.002). There was a significant correlation between audiometric outcome and subjective deafness duration at 12–36 months postoperatively ( r  = − 0.564; p  = 0.02) with a cutoff for open-set monosyllable recognition at a duration of deafness of greater than 408 months. Quality of life was significantly improved by CI. Conclusions CI implantation in unilaterally deafened patients provides objective and subjective benefits. Duration of deafness is unlikely to be an independent negative predictive factor and thus should not generally be considered as contraindication.

Purpose The aim of the study was to develop the German Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) with female speaker by fulfilling the recommendations by International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (ICRA) for using a female speaker to create new multilingual speech tests and to determine norms and to compare these norms with German male speech tests—the male speakers HINT and the Oldenburg Sentence Test (OLSA). Methods The HINT with a female speaker consists of the same speech material as the male speaking HINT. After recording the speech material, 10 normal hearing subjects were included to determine the performance–intensity function (PI function). 24 subjects were part of the measurements to determine the norms and compare them with the norms of male HINT and OLSA. Comparably, adaptive, open-set methods under headphones (HINT) and sound field (OLSA) were used. Results Acoustic phonetic analysis demonstrated significant difference in mean fundamental frequency, its range and mean speaking rate between both HINT speakers. The calculated norms by three of the tested four conditions of the HINT with a female speaker are not significantly different from the norms with a male speaker. No significant effect of the speaker’s gender of the first HINT measurement and no significant correlation between the threshold results of the HINT and the OLSA were determined. Conclusions The Norms for German HINT with a female speaker are comparable to the norms of the HINT with a male speaker. The speech intelligibility score of the HINT does not depend on the speakers’ gender despite significant difference of acoustic–phonetic parameters between the female and male HINT speaker’s voice. Instead, the speech intelligibility rating must be seen as a function of the used speech material.

Purpose Wideband-tympanometry (WBT) could give more informative data about the tympanic condition than the conventional tympanometry. In the actual literature, the clinical profit of wideband-tympanometry in pediatric audiological settings is not well evaluated. The aim of this study was to analyze the additional clinical benefit. Methods 150 children (281 ears) with normal hearing, at the age from 11 days up to 14;10 years, checked with pure tone audiometry or auditory brainstem responses (ABR) participated in this retrospective study. We divided in four age ranges (≤ 6 month; > 6 month ≤ 3 years; > 3 years ≤ 11 years; > 11 years). All children were evaluated with ENT examination including ear microscopy, conventional 226-Hz or 1000-Hz tympanometry and WBT. Ear canal volumes were determined. Results Compared with literature data, our patients aged ≤ 3 years showed smaller mean ear canal volumes (≤  4 ml). We found a good statistical correlation between the WBT-results and 1000-Hz tympanometry but a rare correlation between WBT-results and ear microscopic findings. In the patients with pathologic ear microscopic results in all groups of age, a significant reduction of WBT-absorbance in 1000 Hz and 2000 Hz was found. Conclusions This study confirms that WBT collects additive data to detect the correct middle ear status. In pediatric audiology, WBT is an additional useful method to value middle ear problems and to analyze the character of infantile hearing loss. Standard guidelines for the interpretation of the pediatric population are needed. Hence, it will be necessary to determine these findings in a larger number of infantile ears.

A multichannel non-linear frequency compression algorithm was evaluated in comparison to conventional amplification hearing aids using a test of speech understanding in noise (Oldenburger Satztest—OLSA) and subjective questionnaires. The new algorithm compresses frequencies above a pre-calculated cut off frequency and shifts them to a lower frequency range, thereby providing high-frequency audibility. Low-frequencies, below the compression cut off frequency, are amplified normally. This algorithm is called SoundRecover (SR). In this study, 11 experienced hearing aid users with a severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss were tested. Seven subjects showed enhanced levels of understanding in noise (OLSA) using frequency compression. However, 4 out of the 11 subjects could not benefit from the high-frequency gain. Evaluation using questionnaires demonstrated an increased level of satisfaction after 2 months of experimental devices wearing ( p  = 0.08) and after 4 months of wearing ( p  = 0.09), respectively, compared to conventional hearing instruments.

Purpose The Oldenburg Sentence Test (OLSA) is a German matrix test designed to determine speech recognition thresholds (SRT). It is widely used for hearing-aids and cochlear implant fitting, but an age-adjusted standard is still lacking. In addition, knowing that the ability to concentrate is an important factor in OLSA performance, we hypothesized that OLSA performance would depend on the time of day it was administered. The aim of this study was to propose an age standardization for the OLSA and to determine its diurnal performance. Methods The Gutenberg Health Study is an ongoing population-based study and designed as a single-centre observational, prospective cohort study. Participants were interviewed about common otologic symptoms and tested with pure-tone audiometry and OLSA. Two groups—subjects with and without hearing loss—were established. The OLSA was performed in two runs. The SRT was evaluated for each participant. Results were characterized by age in 5-year cohorts, gender and speech recognition threshold (SRT). A time stamp with an hourly interval was also implemented. Results The mean OLSA SRT was − 6.9 ± 1.0 dB (group 1 male) and − 7.1 ± 0.8 dB (group 1 female) showing an inverse relationship with age in the whole cohort, whereas a linear increase was observed in those without hearing loss. OLSA-SRT values increased more in males than in females with increasing age. No statistical significance was found for the diurnal performance. Conclusions A study with 2900 evaluable Oldenburg Sentence Tests is a novelty and representative for the population of Mainz and its surroundings. We postulate an age- and gender-standardized scale for the evaluation of the OLSA. In fact, with an intergroup standard deviation (of about 1.5 dB) compared to the age dependence of 0.7 dB/10 years, this age normalization should be considered as clinically relevant.

This study implemented a fitting method, developed for use with frequency lowering hearing aids, across multiple testing sites, participants, and hearing aid conditions to evaluate speech perception with a novel type of frequency lowering. A total of 8 participants, including children and young adults, participated in real-world hearing aid trials. A blinded crossover design, including posttrial withdrawal testing, was used to assess aided phoneme perception. The hearing aid conditions included adaptive nonlinear frequency compression (NFC), static NFC, and conventional processing. Enabling either adaptive NFC or static NFC improved group-level detection and recognition results for some high-frequency phonemes, when compared with conventional processing. Mean results for the distinction component of the Phoneme Perception Test (Schmitt, Winkler, Boretzki, & Holube, 2016) were similar to those obtained with conventional processing. Findings suggest that both types of NFC tested in this study provided a similar amount of speech perception benefit, when compared with group-level performance with conventional hearing aid technology. Individual-level results are presented with discussion around patterns of results that differ from the group average.