보청기 재활 실패군의 임상적 원인 분석

Abstract

Background and Objectives：An hearing aid is a useful tol for hearing rehabilitation when surgical hearing correction is not indicated. Sucesful hearing aid rehabilitation is afected by various factors such as the degre and types of hearing impairment, personality, motivation and duration of adaptation. We aimed to identify factors for satisfying hearing aid by analysis and com-parison of the successful and the failure groups of hearing aid users, and to recognize problems of hearing aid prescribed in the non-medical institutes. Subjects and Method：Two hundred and sixty six ears of 202 hearing aid users were refered to the Ajou Hearing Center for two years, and their clinical data were retrospectively reviewed including hearing status and hearing aid type. Twenty ears were prescribed by the non-medical institutes and others were 1st time users. The failure group of hearing aid month. Results：Hearing aids failed to work in 9% of 266 ears. Al problems of previous hearing aid users were solved by re-prescription and functional modification of hearing aids. The portion of patients older than 65 year old was not diferent in two groups, but the portion of female patients in the failure group was significantly larger than that in the success group (p=0.01). The unaided speech discrimination score was significantly higher in the success group (p=0.02). The most common cause of Conclusion：The speech discrimination score and sex are considered as important factors for successful rehabilitation of hearing aid. The prescription of hearing aids and follow-ups in the experienced medical institutes would predict better outcome. The realization of expectation level is of importance when interviewing hearing aid candidates. Further clinical study is necesary for satisfying hearing aid rehabilitation.