How best to manage single-sided deafness?
Reviewed by Gentle Wong

Nowadays there is a plethora of options for patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) including: Bluetooth contralateral routing of signal (CROS) aids; in-the-ear bone conduction hearing aids (TransEar); intra-oral bone conduction aids (SoundBite) and bone-anchored technologies (BAHA). Unilateral cochlear implantation is another emerging option. There is a relative paucity of evidence-based guidelines for patients and intervention selection. Factors to consider when recommending best treatment include functional handicapping due to SSD, speech discrimination, ease of use, the need for surgery, imaging (MRI) compatibility and cost. The literature review highlighted that no high-level evidence demonstrates a significant benefit of either bone-anchored technologies or CROS in speech perception, in noise or sound localisation, although they provided subjective improvement in speech communication. Early data with the Med-El Bonebridge (partially implantable hearing system) is currently limited. Data with cochlear implants appear to show significant improvements in consonant-vowel, nucleus-consonant and sentence in noise scores. It would be advisable to consider a step-wise interventional approach, starting with a hearing aid (CROS, TransEar) failing this consider bone-anchored technologies. 

Updated optimal management of single-sided deafness.
Heubi C, Choo D.
LARYNGOSCOPE
2017;127:1731-2.