Automated Real Ear Measures (AutoREM)-Based Hearing Aid Fitting in Adults Sensorineural Hearing Loss Patients

Abstract

Background: Hearing aid fitting guidelines recommended the use of real ear measures (REM) as a verification step during hearing aid fitting process. The clinician will in turn readjust the hearing aid based on REM to reach prescriptive fitting targets. Unfortunately, approximately 70 to 80% of clinicians do not use REM based fitting. In order to increase the clinical use of REMs, hearing aid manufacturers developed integrated REMs (Auto REM) in the fitting software with subsequent automatic fitting to target.Aim of the Work: To compare the AutoREM-based hearing aid fitting and the manufacturer’s first-fit approaches objectively and subjectively in order to Prove efficacy.Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on thirty eight adult subjects in Audiology Unit-Ain Shams University hospitals, with mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss. All subjects were fitted with Bernafon “ Zerena 9 RIC-100” monaurally. The hearing aid was adjusted by manufacturer’s first fit then Auto-REM based fitting. Then it was evaluated objectively by Real ear measurement and subjectively by aided thresholds, speech recognition score and word recognition scores.Results: AutoREM-based fitting had statistically significant better pure tone aided thresholds, higher word recognition scores (WRS) and higher gain by real ear insertion gain (REIG) than the First fit.Conclusion: AutoREM-based fitting proved to be beneficial step in hearing aid fitting in adults as it provides perfect match to the recommended target gain. It should be implemented in the fitting process whenever possible particular in difficult to test population.