Erste audiologische Ergebnisse mit dem neuen aktiven Knochenleitungsimplantat Sentio in Patienten mit einseitiger Taubheit

Introduction: The active transcutaneous bone conduction implant system Sentio (Oticon Medical AB, Askim, Sweden) was developed to treat patients with conductive and mixed hearing loss, and single-sided deafness (SSD). The Sentio Ti implant is positioned under the skin behind the ear with the actuator placed in a bone bed and fixed on the mastoid with a fixation band and two screws. The external processor Sentio 1 is magnetically attached to the head. Currently, the Sentio is implanted as part of an international multicenter study (clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT05166265). The aim of this report is to share preliminary audiological outcome and patient satisfaction for the Sentio system in the first SSD patients implanted at our clinic.

Method: Five patients between 25 and 58 years of age with SSD and a normal hearing contralateral ear (bone conduction PTA4 9.0 ± 3.2 dB HL and air conduction PTA4 9.5 ± 2.9 dB HL) were implanted with the Sentio TI between April and October 2023. Four of the five patients were already fitted with the Sentio 1 processor. A first analysis of clinical outcome data was based on unaided and aided sound field audiograms with the contralateral ear muffled and plugged and the word recognition scores (in %) in quiet using the German Freiburg monosyllable test.

Results: Average pure-tone thresholds improved substantially from 58.8 ± 2.5 dB HL in unaided condition to 21.5 ± 1.6 dB HL aided with the Sentio. The average word recognition in quiet of all five patients was 0% preoperative and 98.8% with the Sentio (n=4). The Sentio is well received by the patients and the subjective benefit and satisfaction is high.

Discussion: First results indicate an improvement in speech perception in quiet and satisfaction with the Sentio system in patients with SSD.

The institution is paid by Oticon Medical AB to perform the research.