What is a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA)

Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) is a surgically implantable hearing device.

How does a BAHA work?

A bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) is a surgically implanted device that delivers sound via transmissions of bone vibration to the cochlea. Individuals with conductive or mixed hearing loss, single-sided deafness, and an inability to tolerate conventional hearing aids in the ear canal will benefit greatly from BAHA’s.

The first BAHA was implanted in an adult in Sweden in 1977. This device designed for the treatment of conductive and mixed hearing loss became commercially available in 1987. It was used for the first time in France by Manach in 1987.

Bone-anchored hearing aids,( BAHA)®, have now become the gold standard for the treatment of conductive and mixed hearing loss.

BAHA’s are one of the significant achievements in modern otology. They have virtually replaced conventional bone-conducting hearing aids. They are considered to be suitable surgical solutions for the management of congenital aural atresia.

BAHA’s have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for conductive and mixed hearing loss. The FDA has in recent times approved it for the treatment of unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. The principle on which the device functions is by translating sound into bone vibration at the site of the implant. This vibration is then conducted through bone and stimulates the cochlea directly, and thereby completely bypassing the middle ear.

Who will benefit from a BAHA?

• (1) Individuals with conductive or mixed hearing loss, single-sided deafness, and an inability to tolerate conventional hearing aids in the ear canal will benefit greatly from BAHA’s.
• (2) The patients who will likely benefit from this device are patients with congenital External ear canal atresia, chronic otitis externa or otitis media. Patients who are unable to tolerate conventional hearing aids will also likely benefit from BAHA’s.
• (3) Patients with unilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss will likely benefit from a BAHA because the vibration of bone from the BAHA is transmitted to the cochlea of the opposite ear allowing the perceived sensation of sound from the side of the head with the deafened ear.
• (4) Children who do not benefit from standard air-conduction hearing aids will also benefit significantly from BAHA’s.

Significant improvement in quality of life has been observed in patients with bilateral aural atresia who have received BAHA’s. . It was first thought that implantation should be performed when the child was old enough to have sufficient skull thickness. Successful surgical implantation has been reported in children as young 14 months of age.

What are the benefits os a BAHA

The hearing benefits of BAHAs includes

• 1) Improvements in speech as compared with Bone Conducted Hearing Aids
• 2) Understanding of speech and interpretation of sound is much better that conventional hearing aids.
• 3) The use of BAHAs was found to significantly improve hearing as compared with unaided hearing.
• 4) It allows the patient to perceive the direction from where the sound is emanating (directionality). In single sided deafness most persons are unable to tell the direction from where the sound is coming.
• 5) The use of bilateral BAHAs in many situations improves hearing in environments which are crowded and noisy.
• (6) Bilateral BAHAs were found to provide significant hearing benefit as compared with unilateral BAHAs (i.e., improved thresholds for tones, appreciating speech in quiet and in noise, the improved ability to localize/lateralize sounds. This is known as ‘directionality, where the patient is able to discern the direction from where the sound is emanating.,