Clinical Case · Clinician

An unaidable ear, a normal ear

Vignette

A patient has a profound, unaidable sensorineural loss in one ear and entirely normal hearing in the other. They struggle to localise sound and to hear when the conversation is on their poor side.

Test findings

Single-sided deafness: one dead ear, one normal ear.

Diagnostic question

Which approach addresses the difficulty hearing on the poor side?