BoneBridge VS Sophono Alpha2

[ronen_tirrer]

Hello everyone ,

 

I don't hear in my left ear ( Single Side Deafness ) and my doctor recommends bone conduction implant . He does not recomend any device but he does say that I'm a good candidate for all the implants .

 

I select the BAHA out due to skin infections so I'm left with 3 possible devices .

1. Cochlear BAHA attract .

2. Sophono Alpha2 .

3. Med El BoneBridge .

 

The Alpha2 and the BoneBridge seem to be equal in most parameters except for battery consumption and better than the BAHA attract in frequency spectrum .

 

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device	processor	channels	frequency bands	low frequency	high frequency	battery consumption	סוללה	capacity	weight	dimentions	features
BONEBRIDGE	AMADE	8 AGC	16	250	8000	6 days	Zink-air #675	650 mAh	8g	29 x 29 x 9 mm	3 prog directional Mic Wind reduction
BONEBRIDGE	SAMBA	16 compression	16	250	8000		Zink-air #675	650 mAh	9g	30 x 35 x 10 mm	5 prog
SOPHONO	Alpha 2	8 WDRC	16	125	8000	300 - 320 hours 12.5 - 13.3 days	Zink-air #13	310 mAh			4 prog directional Mic
BAHA 4 attract	Baha 4	17 sound analysis		250	5000	200 hours calculated	Zink-air #13	310 mAh	11.6	30 x 21 x 12

 

Has someone made a choice between the two and can share the discussion .

 

Thanks ,

Ronen

[Ivana Marinac]

Hello Ronen,

 

welcome to the Forum - I am an ENT but also the user of the Bonebridge because of bilateral conductive hearing loss.

 

Let's get straight to the matter: you are offered bone conduction implant (all abutment free). At first, they were all intendened for conductive hearing loss or moderate sensoneural hearing loss but clinical indications have widened so now it is recommended for single-side-deafness (SSD). Within this matter, a broad discussion is conducted in scientific community because the implant use the functional but not your deaf ear which is not lost forever. New perspectives offer a cochlear implantation (CI) for a deaf side - on this way you could regain bilateral and directional hearing (the ability to determine the direction of sound. With a bone conduction implant you just pick up sounds from your deaf side but your health side has to process. This means that everything is still dependent of just one side. Practically, directionality can be little bit improved but I would call it artificially.

Here on the Forum we have few people who decided for CI in the case of SSD, for instance Winden Royalty and few others - if you have time read few topic with this matter.

Of course, this is little bit more comprehensive process because it includes hearing rehabilitation but literature describe success - perhaps personal opinion of SSD CI user would be helpful?

 

Back to the bone conduction implants: regarding the difference of the way of the sound transmission look this link:

http://www.medel.com/int/show/index/id/1495/title/Active-vs--Passive/

Also, the incision for BAHA Attract is circular and little bit longer so few professionals in Belgium told that some users of BAHA return to the abutment BAHA because they consider scar to big, from my perspective - I think this is not such big matter but if you are male and have short-cut...

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ystTc_eKevQ/hqdefault.jpg

 

With Sophono 2 I do not have experience, but if you have access to the library with scientific journals try search articles from Prof. Siegert form the Prosper Hospital from Recklinghausen he wrote at least 1 article and has some experience.

 

From the perspective of Med-El, Amade is obsolete almost now - Samba is eagerly waited...