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Three-dimensional finite element analysis on cochlear implantation electrode insertion

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Abstract

Studying the insertion process of cochlear implant (CI) electrode array (EA) is important to ensure successful, sufficient, and safe implantation. A three-dimensional finite element (FE) model was developed to simulate the insertion process. The cochlear structures were reconstructed from an average statistical shape model (SSM) of human cochlea. The electrode is simplified as a long and tapered beam of homogeneous elastic materials, contacting and interacting with the stiff cochlear structures. A quasi-static insertion simulation was conducted, the insertion force and the contact pressure between the electrode and the cochlear wall, were calculated to evaluate the smoothness of insertion and the risk of potential cochlear trauma. Based on this model, different EA designs were analyzed, including the Young’s modulus, the straight or bended shape, the normal or a more tapped section size. The influence of the insertion angle was also discussed. Our simulations indicate that reducing the EA Young’s modulus, tapering and pre-bending are effective ways to ensure safe and successful EA implantation. This model is beneficial for optimizing EA designs and is potentially useful for designing patient-specific CI surgery.

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Notes

  1. The SSM model is shared at SICAS Medical Image Repository, https://doi.org/10.22016/smir.o.207473, with CC-BY 3.0 license.

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Acknowledgements

We would thank Prof. Cheng Hua (Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Fudan University) for support in numerical simulations. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewer for his/her valuable suggestions for improving the paper. This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant/Award Number: 82101221 (Ren)), Shanghai Natural Science Foundation (Grant/Award Number: 20ZR1409900 (Zhang)), and Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant/Award Number: 11932010 (Yao)).

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Author notes

  1. Liu-Jie Ren and Yi Yu have equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Facial Plastic Reconstructive Surgery, ENT Institute, Eye and ENT Hospital, NHC Key Laboratory of Hearing Medicine (Fudan University), Shanghai, 200031, China

    Liu-Jie Ren, Tian-Yu Zhang & Chen-Long Li

  2. School of Medical Instrumentation, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, 201318, China

    Yi Yu

  3. Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Cochlear Implants, Shanghai, 201318, China

    Yu-Heng Zhang, Xin-Dong Liu, Zeng-Jun Sun & Cheng Wang

  4. School of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Shanghai Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Wen-Juan Yao

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  1. Liu-Jie Ren
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Contributions

LJR contributed to methodology, conceptualization, software, visualization, and writing—original draft. YY contributed to methodology, visualization, software, formal analysis, and writing—review and editing. YHZ contributed to resources, methodology, and writing—review and editing. XDL, ZJS contributed to resources and methodology WJY contributed to writing—review and editing and funding. TYZ contributed to writing—review and editing and funding. CW contributed to resources, conceptualization, and writing—review and editing. CLL contributed to conceptualization and writing—review and editing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Cheng Wang or Chen-Long Li.

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Ren, LJ., Yu, Y., Zhang, YH. et al. Three-dimensional finite element analysis on cochlear implantation electrode insertion. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 22, 467–478 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-022-01657-3

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