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Introduction: Bone-anchored hearing devices (BAHD) are well-known good solution for single-sided deafness (SSD). Despite power extension of recently introduced BAHD with implanted active transducer, with indications up to 65 dB Hl of bone conduction (BC) threshold on the implanted side, their indications for SSD still remain better than 25 dB on the good ear, with regards to bone conduction thresholds. The aim of this study was to assess the possibility to enlarge BAHD indications for SSD by means of a newly proposed candidacy evaluation protocol, which includes a new software-aided method. Methods: 20 SSD patients (mean age 56 years, 9 females, and 11 males) were divided into two groups: group A (10 patients, BC Results: With BAHD tester turned off, no recognition was detected. Speech audiometry with BAHD tester turned on revealed mean values of 92% for group A and 89% for group B, with a difference of 3.0% (χ2 = 0.285 and p = 0.5935). As for IFastSRT50 with BAHD tester turned on, mean signal-to-noise ratio value to obtain 50% of recognition was −6.89 for group A and −6, with a difference of 0.89 (t = 1,201 and p = 0.2453). Conclusion: BAHD are confirmed to be a good solution for SSD cases. The absence of statistically significant differences in our two tested groups suggests that newer implanted active transducer device indications should be extended up to 35 dB Hl on the hearing ear. The IFastSRT50 is a reliable and quick method to enhance preoperative candidacy evaluation.

Objective: To analyze and compare the preoperative factors that potentially influence the outcome of stapedotomy in our study group. Materials and Methods: 161 cases were enrolled. Clinical variables considered to influence functional results – air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC) pure-tone average (PTA), air-bone gaps (ABG), sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), ABG gain and ΔSNHL – were gender, age, case type (unilateral vs. bilateral), ear side (right vs. left), pregnancy, vascular disease and family history of otosclerosis. The audiometric variables were preoperative AC- and BC-PTA, SNHL and ABG. Results: Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that the probability of obtaining a ≥10 dB gain is significantly affected by the following factors: age 0.05). Nevertheless, multivariate logistic regression analysis maintained a statistically significant correlation only between gain ≥10 dB and both preoperative ABG ≥30 dB and age Conclusions: The accurate knowledge of predictive factors is a valuable tool that permits the surgeon to plan surgery with a better case selection as well as assisting in counseling the patient with regard to the likelihood of success of the procedure.