Restoring binaural hearing in adults on the NHS: is it worth it? Seminar

The ability to listen through two ears, or binaural hearing, helps individuals to follow conversations in noisy environments, to focus attention on different sources of sound with ease, and to determine the location of sounds. These abilities are severely impaired or completely absent in adults with either a bilateral or unilateral severe-to-profound hearing loss. Perhaps surprisingly, the current standard interventions for both of these patient groups offered on the NHS do not aim to restore binaural hearing, despite the benefits that may be gained from doing so. Binaural hearing can be restored by providing a second implant to those with bilateral losses but doing so has been found to not be a cost-effective use of NHS resources. In some of these patients, the provision of a well-fit acoustic hearing aid in their non-implanted ear may provide some benefits but it is unclear whether this is currently being provided to UK patients and, if so, what the benefits are. There is currently no evidence for whether restoring binaural hearing in unilaterally-deaf adults through cochlear implantation would be cost-effective. In this talk, I will present results from two studies. The first study surveyed CI centres across the UK to determine whether acoustic hearing aids are routinely provided to adult unilateral implant users, and assessed the benefits that adult CI users obtain from hearing aid use. The objective of the second study was to quantify the benefits from restoring binaural hearing in unilaterally-deaf adults and to determine whether it may be potentially cost-effective to do so.