Limited usable hearing unilaterally (LUHU) in infants and young children: a scoping review of technology considerations and developmental outcomes.

Objectives: The objective of this scoping review was to examine the developmental impact of limited usable hearing unilaterally (LUHU) and surgical and non-surgical technology outcomes specific to infants and young children who have LUHU.

Design: The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Model of Evidence-Based Healthcare provided a framework. Covidence software was used to manage the articles. Literature searches were conducted in November 2022 and May 2023. Three research audiologists screened the articles followed by full text review by the authors.

Results: The searches resulted in 2953 articles. After removal of duplicates, 888 abstracts were screened. 429 articles underwent full text review. Various selection criteria were applied leaving 66 articles for extraction.

Conclusions: The developmental impact of LUHU is comparable to unilateral hearing loss in general. Hearing-related quality of life and listening fatigue are also impacted. Management counselling to review the various technology options should be guided by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) results. Bilateral listening benefits may be achieved through cochlear implantation. A remote microphone (RM) system, coupled to the normal hearing ear can improve performance in settings where noise and localisation are problematic. A bone conduction device (BCD) or contralateral routeing of signal (CROS) system may mitigate head shadow effects.