Nicolas Siegert, Düsseldorf – Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. h. c. Ralf Siegert, Recklinghausen
Video 18 2018
“New universal implant for transcutaneous and percutaneous coupling”
More than twelve years ago, we developed the transcutaneous, partially implantable bone conduction hearing aid, introduced it in clinical practice, and have since implanted it almost five hundred times. In the process, we have gained a multitude of surgical, audiological, and clinical practical experiences.
The aim of this study was to develop a universally applicable, thin, easy-to-use magnetic implant for anchoring all clinically inserted bone conduction hearing aids. Such implant was intended to be appropriate both for transcutaneous and percutaneous coupling, for any bone thickness and thus, essentially, implantable in patients of any age.
The study design included various technical measurements:
– of the influence of static magnetic fields of different strengths on the output sound pressure level,
– of the holding power of different magnetic constellations.
The magnetic field strengths of the implant and the base plates were below 3 mT. By contrast, significant performance losses of the vibrator only occurred at approx. 160 mT.
We shall also present a percutaneous variant for severe combined hearing impairment. This implant has the same basic shape as the transcutaneous one allowing the two types to be replaced during a small surgical procedure. The percutaneous implant also has the thinnest spacer sleeve to date with a diameter of only 3 mm.