Article
Artificial Vibrating Intracochlear Stimulation
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Published: | April 14, 2014 |
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Objective: Nowadays, there are various applications of a more or less direct stimulation of the inner ear. The so-called “Power stapes”, realized by a VSB attached on the long process of the incus combined with a stapes plasty. The “Vibrant DACS” with a coupling of the floating mass transducer through the stapes footplate and the “CoDACS”, a stapes prosthesis attached to an artificial incus driven by a transducer system.
Methods: 48 patients with mixed hearing loss were operated. 22 patients were treated with a power stapes, 18 patients received a CoDACS and 8 patients a Vibrant-DACS.
Interventions: Oval window membrane vibroplasty (OWMV) for direct acoustic cochlear stimulation.
Results: All patients experienced an enormous benefit related to the various surgical procedures. The average functional hearing gain ranged from 23 dB to 45 dB. The surgeries were not related to any difficulties; vertigo, or other complications did not occur. Nevertheless in one patient severe inner ear trauma occurred.
Conclusion: We present an overview over different new methods for (more or less) inner ear stimulation using an active middle ear implant. However, the term “DACS” is misleading, because all methods need an additional interface to implement an inner ear stimulation. Therefore, it is not useful to call these procedures a “direct stimulation”. Since all application forms create an intracochlear energy transfer by artificial vibration, a more appropriate acronym is proposed: Artificial Vibrating Intracochlear Stimulation (“AVIS”)
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