Implantable hearing devices in clinical practice. Systematic review and consensus statements.

Objective: Implantable hearing devices represent a modern and innovative solution for hearing restoration. Over the years, these high-tech devices have increasingly evolved but their use in clinical practice is not universally agreed in the scientific literature. Congresses, meetings, conferences, and consensus statements to achieve international agreement have been made.

Treatment of moderate-to-severe otosclerosis with simultaneous piston surgery and incus vibroplasty.

Objective: Whereas the nature of otosclerosis has been extensively investigated, treatment modalities in advanced otosclerosis with the sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) are relatively unexplored.

Materials And Methods: This article presents a retrospective case series study of nine patients who received a one-stage piston coupled with Vibrant Soundbridge® vibroplasty in treating otosclerosis with moderate-to-severe SNHL.

Results: The findings suggest that hearing loss could be restored across frequencies and no significant change in the bone-conduction threshold were measured.

Anatomic variations of the round window niche: radiological study and related endoscopic anatomy.

Purpose: In the last decades, literature has shown an increasing interest in round windows (RW) anatomy due to its pivotal role in deafness surgery. The high variability of this anatomical region, with particular regard to the round windows niche (RWN), has been studied by several authors through different methods of investigation. The aim of the present research was to radiologically examine the morphological variability of the RWN and to link the imaging findings to the endoscopic view.

Common cavity and custom-made electrodes: speech perception and audiological performance of children with common cavity implanted with a custom-made MED-EL electrode.

Objective: Few studies exist on children with common cavity, fewer still on their long-term audiological development after having received a cochlear implant. Our goal was to observe and report the long-term audiological progress of children with common cavity who were implanted with a custom-made electrode.

Methods: In this longitudinal, multi-center study, 19 children were implanted with a MED-EL custom-made electrode via either single slit cochleostomy or double posterior labyrinthotomy.

Simultaneous Vibrant Soundbridge Implantation and 2nd Stage Auricular Reconstruction for Microtia with Aural Atresia.

Aural atresia and severe microtia are associated malformations that result in problems with hearing and cosmesis, associated speech and language difficulties and diminished self-esteem. In cases where middle ear ossiculoplasty and aural atresia canalplasty are expected to give poor hearing outcomes that would eventually require the use of hearing aids, bone anchored hearing aids or active middle ear implants may be better options. This case report describes a simultaneous Vibrant Soundbridge implantation and 2(nd) stage auricular reconstruction with rib graft cartilage for an 11-year-old boy with grade III microtia and aural atresia 8 months after the 1(st) stage reconstruction.

Spatial hearing with a single cochlear implant in late-implanted adults.

We assessed sound localisation abilities of late-implanted adults fitted with a single cochlear implant (CI) and examined whether these abilities are affected by the duration of implant use. Ten prelingually and four postlingually deafened adults who received a unilateral CI were tested in a sound-source identification task. Above chance performance was observed in those prelingual CI recipients who had worn their implant for longer time (9 years on average), revealing some monaural sound localisation abilities in this population but only after extensive CI use.

Hearing again with two ears: recovery of spatial hearing after bilateral cochlear implantation.

Bilateral cochlear implants (CI) offer a unique opportunity for the study of spatial hearing plasticity in humans. Here we studied the recovery of spatial hearing in two sequential bilateral CI recipients, adopting a longitudinal approach. Each recipient was tested in a sound-source identification task shortly after bilateral activation and at 1, 6, and 12 months follow-up.

Change blindness in profoundly deaf individuals and cochlear implant recipients.

We used a change blindness paradigm to examine visual abilities in the profoundly deaf when exogenous capture of attention is prevented and only endogenous attention shifts are possible. Nineteen profoundly deaf participants, 22 cochlear implant recipients and 18 hearing controls were asked to detect a change occurring between two consecutive visual scenes separated by a blank. Changes occurred on half of the trials, either at central or peripheral locations, and the task was performed under focused attention (at the centre or at the periphery) or under distributed attention.

Double posterior labyrinthotomy technique: results in three Med-El patients with common cavity.

Hypothesis: This study reports on the use of the double posterior labyrinthotomy surgical technique and a custom-designed electrode to ensure better positioning of stimulating electrodes within the common cavity and thus demonstrate suitable outcomes in patients.

Background: Cochlear implantation has proven beneficial for numerous children with congenital malformations of the inner ear. Several studies show good auditory perception outcomes in children with common cavity.