Abstract

Unilateral hearing loss can be defined as normal hearing in one ear, while 20 dB or more sensorineural hearing loss is present in the opposite ear. Bilateral hearing is important for localization and speech discrimination in the noise particularly, and the sound quality. Unilateral hearing may lead to delayed language development, decreased academic performance, and behavioral problems with the environmental factors in pediatric patients, whereas it may cause frustration, inability to distinguish speech in noise particularly, and difficulties at work and social life in adult patients. The most common causes are viral culprits, congenital abnormalities, pre- and perinatal factors, head trauma, meningitis, tumors and sudden hearing loss. Rehabilitation of these patients should be based on the patient's condition and patient’s request. The options of rehabilitation include conventional hearing aid, contralateral routing of signals, frequency modulation device, bone-anchored hearing aids and cochlear implantation.