The rehabilitation of conductive hearing impairment.

Conductive hearing loss (CHL) usually is amenable to surgical correction. At times, patients with CHL may not be candidates for surgical correction, or they may refuse to undergo the procedure. In such a situation, the patient should be encouraged to try hearing aids, either conventional or bone conduction, depending on the pathologic condition. After a discussion of bone-conduction implantable hearing aids, the article discusses congenital aural atresia, otosclerosis, and the management of CHL after infratemporal fossa approach and transtemporal approaches.