Binaural Correction of Hearing Loss

Overview

S u m m a r y:
The first part of the contribution summarizes theoretical aspects of binaural hearingand present physical and physiological principles playing a role there. The main advantage ofbinaural hearing includes binaural summation, possibility of directional hearing, and the eliminationof the role of acoustic shade of the head as well as an increased signal-noise ratio in the centralhearing organ. The authors discuss mono-aural and binaural correction with the hearing aid andpresent advantages of binaural correction which, among other things, exert a lower load on thehearing organ and enables the space and directional hearing and, especially, offer a better comprehensibilityof speech on the background of disturbing side sounds.The second part of the contribution presents the results of evaluating a group of patients, who usebinaural correction with hearing aid permanently and become adapted to them. The evaluationwasbased on the results of a questionnaire, filled out by the users, as well as the results of thediscrimination test, which evaluated understanding of a standard set of words on the backgroundof disturbing white noise with a precisely defined signal-noise ratio. Both kinds of evaluationunivocally proved that the use of hearing aid on both ears is of definitive advantage in most casesand provides a substantial improvement of hearing comfort and comprehensibility of speech. Itshould be therefore a method of choice especially for persons in active age and generally in patientswith higher requirements for communication abilities.

Key words:
binaural hearing, correction with hearing aid.