Treatment With Binaural Hearing Aids: A Follow-Up Investigation of 1,147 Cases

Abstract

TREATMENT with bilateral hearing aids has, until now, been carried out to a limited extent, and experiments have been made primarily on children. In 1960, Groen and Hellema¹published the results of treating a group of children from a school for the deaf with hearing aids for both ears. A single apparatus was almost universally used, with a Y-lead and two ear-telephones which stimulated both hearing organs simultaneously. Examinations showed that a 6-db greater effect was achieved in this manner, compared with that achieved through one ear alone. In the same manner, through mainly using one body apparatus with a Y-lead, Whetnall²has treated 400 children and achieved better results than with one hearing aid for one ear. At the Hearing Centre, Aarhus, Denmark, all children with bilateral hearing defects have been treated since 1957 with body hearing aids for both the right and left ears. The advantage