Anatomical investigation of safety determining factors for keyhole drilling trajectories for robotic cochlear implant surgery.

Purpose: Cochlear implants (CI) are the most successful bioprosthesis in medicine probably due to the tonotopic anatomy of the auditory pathway and of course the brain plasticity. Correct placement of the CI arrays, respecting the inner ear anatomy are therefore important. The ideal trajectory to insert a cochlear implant array is defined by an entrance through the round window membrane and continues as long as possible parallel to the basal turn of the cochlea.