TY - JOUR
T1 - An optically-guided cochlear implant sheath for real-time monitoring of electrode insertion into the human cochlea
AU - Starovoyt, Anastasiya
AU - Quirk, Bryden C.
AU - Putzeys, Tristan
AU - Kerckhofs, Greet
AU - Nuyts, Johan
AU - Wouters, Jan
AU - McLaughlin, Robert A.
AU - Verhaert, Nicolas
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Flemish Research Foundation (FWO/ 1804816N, 12Y6919N, 1S78519N, 1S78521N, G088619N), Australian Global Connections Fund Bridging Grant (511495075) and by the Internal Funds of the KU Leuven. We thank the colleagues of the Vesalius Institute, KU Leuven and the Mortuary of the UZ Leuven for their help in harvesting and preserving the temporal bones, as well as the anonymous donors of the temporal bones. We thank the KU Leuven XCT core facility for providing access to the XCT infrastructure to record CECT data. We thank Carla Geeroms for her guidance and technical support during the CECT experiments, and Tim Balcaen together with Prof. Dr. Wim De Borggraeve for their help with the synthesis of the Hf-WD POM. We thank LLS Rowiak for the histological analysis. We thank Cochlear for providing electrode arrays, used in this study. We thank Prof. Emmanuel Mylanus and Prof. Christian Desloovere for surgical testing of the optically-guided sheath and for providing insightful feedback.
Funding Information:
R.A.M. and B.C.Q are co-founders of the company Miniprobes Pty Ltd. Miniprobes Pty Ltd. was the lead applicant on a Global Connections Fund Bridging Grant funded by the Australian Government, which contributed AUD$50,000 towards the initial stages of this project. The other authors declare no potential conflict of interest.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by Flemish Research Foundation (FWO/ 1804816N, 12Y6919N, 1S78519N, 1S78521N, G088619N), Australian Global Connections Fund Bridging Grant (511495075) and by the Internal Funds of the KU Leuven. We thank the colleagues of the Vesalius Institute, KU Leuven and the Mortuary of the UZ Leuven for their help in harvesting and preserving the temporal bones, as well as the anonymous donors of the temporal bones. We thank the KU Leuven XCT core facility for providing access to the XCT infrastructure to record CECT data. We thank Carla Geeroms for her guidance and technical support during the CECT experiments, and Tim Balcaen together with Prof. Dr. Wim De Borggraeve for their help with the synthesis of the Hf-WD POM. We thank LLS Rowiak for the histological analysis. We thank Cochlear for providing electrode arrays, used in this study. We thank Prof. Emmanuel Mylanus and Prof. Christian Desloovere for surgical testing of the optically-guided sheath and for providing insightful feedback.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - In cochlear implant surgery, insertion of perimodiolar electrode arrays into the scala tympani can be complicated by trauma or even accidental translocation of the electrode array within the cochlea. In patients with partial hearing loss, cochlear trauma can not only negatively affect implant performance, but also reduce residual hearing function. These events have been related to suboptimal positioning of the cochlear implant electrode array with respect to critical cochlear walls of the scala tympani (modiolar wall, osseous spiral lamina and basilar membrane). Currently, the position of the electrode array in relation to these walls cannot be assessed during the insertion and the surgeon depends on tactile feedback, which is unreliable and often comes too late. This study presents an image-guided cochlear implant device with an integrated, fiber-optic imaging probe that provides real-time feedback using optical coherence tomography during insertion into the human cochlea. This novel device enables the surgeon to accurately detect and identify the cochlear walls ahead and to adjust the insertion trajectory, avoiding collision and trauma. The functionality of this prototype has been demonstrated in a series of insertion experiments, conducted by experienced cochlear implant surgeons on fresh-frozen human cadaveric cochleae.
AB - In cochlear implant surgery, insertion of perimodiolar electrode arrays into the scala tympani can be complicated by trauma or even accidental translocation of the electrode array within the cochlea. In patients with partial hearing loss, cochlear trauma can not only negatively affect implant performance, but also reduce residual hearing function. These events have been related to suboptimal positioning of the cochlear implant electrode array with respect to critical cochlear walls of the scala tympani (modiolar wall, osseous spiral lamina and basilar membrane). Currently, the position of the electrode array in relation to these walls cannot be assessed during the insertion and the surgeon depends on tactile feedback, which is unreliable and often comes too late. This study presents an image-guided cochlear implant device with an integrated, fiber-optic imaging probe that provides real-time feedback using optical coherence tomography during insertion into the human cochlea. This novel device enables the surgeon to accurately detect and identify the cochlear walls ahead and to adjust the insertion trajectory, avoiding collision and trauma. The functionality of this prototype has been demonstrated in a series of insertion experiments, conducted by experienced cochlear implant surgeons on fresh-frozen human cadaveric cochleae.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141551372&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-022-23653-4
DO - 10.1038/s41598-022-23653-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 36357503
AN - SCOPUS:85141551372
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 12
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 19234
ER -