Influence of electrode array stiffness and diameter on hearing in cochlear implanted guinea pig

During cochlear implantation, electrode array translocation and trauma should be avoided to preserve residual hearing. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of physical parameters of the array on residual hearing and cochlear structures during insertion. Three array prototypes with differe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2017-08, Vol.12 (8), p.e0183674-e0183674
Main Authors: Drouillard, Mylène, Torres, Renato, Mamelle, Elisabeth, De Seta, Daniele, Sterkers, Olivier, Ferrary, Evelyne, Nguyen, Yann
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Anatomy
Animals
Auditory Threshold
Biology and Life Sciences
Brain stem
Cavia porcellus
Cochlea
Cochlear Implants
Electrodes
Electrodes, Implanted
Engineering and Technology
Fibrosis
Guinea Pigs
Health aspects
Hearing aids
Hearing loss
Hearing Loss - surgery
Histopathology
Human health and pathology
Implantation
Insertion
Life Sciences
Male
Manganese
Medicine and Health Sciences
Neurosciences
Patients
Physical properties
Physical Sciences
Position (location)
Prevention
Prototypes
Research and Analysis Methods
Speech
Stiffness
Swine
Translocation
Transplants & implants
Trauma
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Summary:During cochlear implantation, electrode array translocation and trauma should be avoided to preserve residual hearing. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of physical parameters of the array on residual hearing and cochlear structures during insertion. Three array prototypes with different stiffnesses or external diameters were implanted in normal hearing guinea pigs via a motorized insertion tool carried on a robot-based arm, and insertion forces were recorded. Array prototypes 0.4 and 0.4R had 0.4 mm external diameter and prototype 0.3 had 0.3 mm external diameter. The axial stiffness was set to 1 for the 0.4 prototype and the stiffnesses of the 0.4R and 0.3 prototypes were calculated from this as 6.8 and 0.8 (relative units), respectively. Hearing was assessed preoperatively by the auditory brainstem response (ABR), and then at day 7 and day 30 post-implantation. A study of the macroscopic anatomy was performed on cochleae harvested at day 30 to examine the scala location of the array. At day 7, guinea pigs implanted with the 0.4R array had significantly poorer hearing results than those implanted with the 0.3 array (26±17.7, 44±23.4, 33±20.5 dB, n = 7, vs 5±8.7, 1±11.6, 12±11.5 dB, n = 6, mean±SEM, respectively, at 8, 16 and 24 kHz, p
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0183674