Pubmed, OvidSP (MEDLINE), EMBASE (DIMDI), the NHR Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (including NHS EED, DARE, and HTA), and the Cochrane Library were searched to identify papers published between January 2006 and December 2015 using the MeSH terms VSB, mixed hearing loss, conductive hearing loss, middle ear implant, vibroplasty and combinations of them. Data were only extracted if reported in the text or tables, or if they could be accurately calculated from graphs, figures, or raw data sets. Information was extracted from each article on 1) sample characteristics (age, gender, aetiology, diagnosis, treatment received/receiving), 2) type of intervention (use of HA, surgical approach, audio processor type), and 3) type of outcome measures (testing intervals, surgical complications, AC and BC pure tone thresholds, sound-field thresholds, functional gain, hearing preservation, speech perception/recognition at various presentation levels in quiet and noise, results of questionnaires). The evidence presented in the selected studies was assessed and classified using the levels of evidence defined by the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine.
As demonstrated by the variety of studies reported, the VSB and the specific surgical techniques developed (“vibroplasty”) have enabled to adapt this active, electronic middle ear implant to nearly every pathophysiological situation within the middle ear and to restore hearing by amplification of residual hearing. This new strategy in hearing rehabilitation has lead to an improved quality of hearing and life of the patients, respectively.
