Open Access

Hannes Maier, Thomas Lenarz, Parwis Agha-Mir-Salim, Martijn J. H. Agterberg, Andreas Anagiotos, Susan Arndt, Geoffrey R. Ball, Manohar Bance, Maurizio Barbara, Uwe Baumann, Wolfgang Baumgartner, Daniele Bernardeschi, Dirk Beutner, Arjan Bosman, Robert Briggs, Susan Busch, Marco Caversaccio, Markus Dahm, Ernst Dalhoff, Arnaud Devèze, Azadeh Ebrahimi-Madiseh, Bernard Fraysse, Henning Frenzel, Javier Gavilán, Mohammad Ghoncheh, Bo E. V. Håkansson, William Hodgetts, Myrthe Karianne Sophie Hol, Julian Holland, Marcus Holmberg, Alexander Huber, Herman Jenkins, Roulla Katiri, Kiana Kheirkhah, Assen Koitschev, Martin Kompis, Cris Lanting, Luis Lassaletta, Bob Lerut, Rudolf Leuwer, Thomas Linder, Hubert Martin Löwenheim, Lawrence Lustig, Rishi Mandavia, Manuel Manrique, Martins Jorge Humberto, Griet Mertens, Robert Arndt Mlynski, Hamidreza Mojallal, Simonetta Monini, Peter Monksfield, Alexander Müller, Emmanuel Mylanus, Hideko Heidi Nakajima, Marcus Neudert, Erwin Offeciers, Flurin Pfiffner, Markus Pietsch, Stefan K.-R. Plontke, Nils Kristian Prenzler, Milan Profant, Torsten Rahne, Gunesh Rajan, Anna Ratuszniak, Stefan Raufer, Jaydip Ray, Sabine Reinfeldt, Christof Röösli, Tove Rosenbom, Rolf Benedikt Salcher, Matthias Schönermark, Burkard Schwab, Henryk Skarżyński, Piotr H. Skarżyński, Hillary Snapp, Georg Sprinzl, Michael Spearman, Stefan Stenfelt, Christof Stieger, Stephane Tringali, Eric Truy, James Tysome, Paul Van de Heyning, Nicolas Verhaert, Thomas Wesarg, Patrik Westerkull, Barbara Wollenberg, Thomas Zahnert, Andrzej Zarowski, Ad Snik

• Nowadays, several options are available to treat patients with conductive or mixed hearing loss. Whenever surgical intervention is not possible or contra-indicated, and amplification by a conventional hearing device (e.g., behind-the-ear device) is not feasible, then implantable hearing devices are an indispensable next option. Implantable bone-conduction devices and middle-ear implants have advantages but also limitations concerning complexity/invasiveness of the surgery, medical complications, and effectiveness. To counsel the patient, the clinician should have a good overview of the options with regard to safety and reliability as well as unequivocal technical performance data. The present consensus document is the outcome of an extensive iterative process including ENT specialists, audiologists, health-policy scientists, and representatives/technicians of the main companies in this field. This document should provide a first framework for procedures and technical characterization to enhance effective communication between these stakeholders, improving health care.