Cochlear Implants: 2010 and Beyond - Part Four

By Cheryl Heppner

May 2010

Editor: The folks in Virginia recently held their third cochlear implant conference, and reporter extraordinaire Cheryl was there to record the proceedings. I think she was just warming up for the summer conferences! Here's her report. This is part four of four parts.

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Here's Part One

Here's Part Two

Here's Part Three

Cochlear Implants in the Future

To wrap up his presentation at the third state conference on cochlear implants, Dr. Daniel Coelho of Virginia Commonwealth University gave us a glimpse of current trends.

Pushing the age for implantation: Children are being implanted at younger ages, and adults are being implanted at advanced ages. Hybrids: Work is being done to combine the use of cochlear implants and hearing aids in order to preserve hearing that is still available.

MRI Compatibility: Ways are being explored to make cochlear implants MRI-compatible or allow for easier removal/insertion of the magnet.

Completely Implantable: Research is being done to learn how to successfully implant the entire cochlear implant, including the processor.

Medical/gene therapy: Research is also being done to develop cures for hearing loss.

Dr. Coelho was asked about the Lyric hearing aid. He said that the reason it lasts so long on a single battery is due to its being placed in the ear where it can be very close to where the sound is needed. This puts less demand on the battery to supply volume and clarity.

He also talked about involvement in Cochlear's study of hybrid hearing, in which a hearing aid and cochlear implant are combined in a single ear. This technology is intended for people who have decent hearing at lower frequencies and hearing loss at the higher frequencies. There is potential for better speech understanding in a noisy situation. The device looks the same as an implant outside the ear but has an added earpiece. Currently this device is approved by the FDA only for research trials. The jury is not yet in on whether the hybrid system is a good thing.

In a study of two to three years, 17 subjects have now been implanted. Of those, 13 have had the systems activated. All are adults with progressive hearing loss. Most are doing better with the system and continue to show improvements.

At the close of his remarks, Dr. Coelho predicted that in the future people would say of today's cochlear implants "I can't believe that is how you got people to hear; it is so prehistoric."

Here's Part One

Here's Part Two

Here's Part Three

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