BACKGROUND As the idea of stem cell technology in the treatment of sensorial hearing loss has emerged over the past decades, the need for in vivo models for related experiments has become explicit. One of the most common experimental models for inner ear stem cell delivery experiments is the Wistar albino rat. AIMS To investigate the surgical anatomy of the temporal bone of the Wistar albino ...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS Minimally invasive image-guided approach to cochlear implantation (CI) involves drilling a narrow, linear tunnel to the cochlea. Reported herein is the first clinical implementation of this approach. STUDY DESIGN Prospective cohort study. METHODS On preoperative computed tomography (CT), a safe linear trajectory through the facial recess targeting the scala tympani was...

A cochlear implant (CI) restores partial hearing to profoundly deaf individuals. CI electrodes are inserted manually in the cochlea and surgeons rely on tactile feedback from the implant to determine when to stop the insertion. This manual insertion method results in a large degree of variability in surgical outcomes and intra-cochlear trauma. Additionally, implants often span only the basal tu...

It has been shown that glucocorticoids reduce the hearing threshold shifts associated with cochlear implantation. Previous studies evaluated the administration of glucocorticoids immediately before surgery or the repeated pre- or perioperative systemic application of glucocorticoids. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a sustained release dexamethasone hydrogel in hearing prese...

The treatment of total deafness using a cochlear implant has now become a routine medical procedure. The tendency to expand the audiological indications for cochlear stimulation and to preserve the remnants of hearing has brought new problems. The authors have studied the topographical anatomy of the internal structures of the ear in the area where cochleostomy is usually performed and an impla...

Models of the active cochlea build upon the underlying passive mechanics. Passive cochlear mechanics is based on physical and geometrical properties of the cochlea and the fluid-tissue interaction between the cochlear partition and the surrounding fluid. Although the fluid-tissue interaction between the basilar membrane and the fluid in scala tympani (ST) has been explored in both active and pa...

Previous animal study revealed that post-implantation electrical detection levels significantly declined within days. The impact of cochlear implant (CI) insertion on human auditory pathway in terms of impedance and electrically evoked compound action potential (ECAP) variation within hours after surgery remains unclear, since at this time frequency mapping can only commence weeks after implant...

AIMS We sought to develop techniques for visualizing cochlear blood flow in live mammalian subjects using fluorescence microendoscopy. BACKGROUND Inner ear microcirculation appears to be intimately involved in cochlear function. Blood velocity measurements suggest that intense sounds can alter cochlear blood flow. Disruption of cochlear blood flow may be a significant cause of hearing impairm...

OBJECTIVES It is not unusual for a cochlear implantation (CI) candidate to have some type of ear malformation, in particular an abnormal course of the facial nerve (FN). In this study, we attempted to reconstruct a three-dimensional (3D) image of temporal bone structures with malformation using computed tomography (CT) imaging and examined its usefulness in the surgical planning of CI in a malf...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the electric-acoustic interactions within the inferior colliculus of guinea pigs and to observe how central masking appears in invasive neural recordings of the inferior colliculus (IC). METHODS A platinum-iridium wire was inserted to scala tympani through cochleostomy with a depth no greater than 1 mm for intracochlear stimulation of electric pulse train. A 5 mm 100...