First results of the treatment of conductive hearing loss with the BCI602 (MED-EL) bone-conducting hearing-implant

Introduction The BCI 602 (MED−EL Elektromedizinische Geräte GmbH Innsbruck) was released in 2019 as a successor of the BCI 601 hearing implant and is supposed to feature the same performance in a different size. The new Implant is 5 mm shorter from the coil to the transducer, the diameter of the transducer increased up to 18.2 mm and the immersion depth into the mastoid was reduced from 8.7 to 4.5 mm. Also, the new implant is fixed to the mastoid bone with self-drilling screws.

Materials and methods Four patients were implanted with the BCI 602 at the Hanover Medical School (3 adults, 1 child, all with conductive hearing loss). The device was activated 4-6 weeks after surgery and further check-ups and audiological tests were scheduled 3 and 12 months after implantation. Speech recognition was determined with the Freiburg monosyllable test in quiet and with the Oldenburg matrix test (OLSA) in quiet and in noise. Speech intelligibility with the BCI602 was compared to the unaided situations.

Results After activation, mean WRS (word recognition scores) in quiet increased from 0% to 73.3% (n=3) in the Freiburg monosyllable test and SRT decreased by -24.4 dB (76.0 dB to 51.5 dB) in the OLSA in quiet, compared to the pre-operative situation. SNR in OLSA decreased by -12.7 dB (from 10.4 dB to -2.3 dB). No complications were observed with the BCI602.

Discussion and conclusion Results of speech tests with the new BCI 602 showed a notable improvement in speech understanding, compared to the unaided situation. Improvement of word recognition of the BCI 602 (73.3%) is comparable to the BCI 601 (56.73% [Magele et al. 2019] resp. 79.2% [Plontke et al. 2019]). The surgical procedure was simplified because the new transducer required a smaller bone bed and reduced the need for drilling.

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Publication History

Article published online:
10 June 2020