Spring 08 Week 1

I saw an elderly man this week who reported a gradual decline in hearing throughout his life. He reported noise exposure from power tools, construction, and hunting. In addition, he confirmed a personal and family history of diabetes. He is not currently a hearing aid user; however, the purpose of his visit was to determine hearing aid candidacy and discuss amplification options. The client's wife, a long time hearing aid user, accompanied him. Otoscopy revealed normal, clear ear canals and tympanic membranes bilaterally. Tympanometry revealed normal, Type A, tympanograms bilaterally. Pure tone audiometry revealed a mild sensorineural loss in the low frequencies sloping at 2000 Hz to a severe loss bilaterally. Fairly reliable responses were found for bone conduction testing due to inconsistencies in masked responses and client fatigue. Speech recognition thresholds (SRT) were found to be 45 dB HL, in both ears. Pure tone averages were in agreement with the SRT bilaterally. Speech discrimination testing, performed at 40 dB SL, resulted in 76% in the right ear and 52% in the left ear. According to the results, he displays a mild sloping to severe sensorineural hearing loss and is an excellent candidate for bilateral amplification. Several hearing aid options, including behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids, were discussed; however, he chose an in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aid comparable to his wife’s current aid. Ear impressions were made, Oticon Tego LP hearing aids were ordered, and a follow up appointment will be scheduled when the hearing aids arrive.

I found an article that discusses speech recognition assessments and their ability to measure objective and subjective outcome of wearing hearing aids. The SPIN, HINT, and QuickSin were administered to 21 hearing aid users. All tests were administered with and without hearing aids to see if the participants speech understanding improved. Subjective matter was measured using the Hearing Aid Performance Inventory. The results suggest a great benefit in speech recognition with all tests while using hearing aids. When comparing objective and subjective results, the HAPI ratings improved as the performance on the tests improved.

http://web.ebscohost.com.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=15&sid=9a94e1ac-652f-424e-9d24-5f8185d7d5bf%40sessionmgr8

Mendel, L.L. (2007) Objective and Subjective Hearing Aid Assessment Outcome. American Journal of Audiology, 16