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Surgical and audiological outcomes of a fully implantable middle ear implant: early results from a retrospective multicentre study

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

This paper reports the surgical and audiological outcomes of a large series of patients who received a fully implantable middle ear implant (MEI): carina (Cochlear, Australia).

Methods

This is a multicentre retrospective study involving three tertiary referral centres. Patient data were collected for the first 42 consecutive patients who were fitted with the MEI between 2014 and 2019 (Sheffield from February 2017 to January 2019; São Paulo from April 2015 to September 2017; Porto from December 2014 to May 2017). The main outcome measures included surgical results, free field speech testing with speech recognition thresholds (SRT) and audiological gain.

Results

There was one major complication due to infection resulting in a brain abscess and explantation of the device. Three other patients had minor skin infections; no other complications were reported. Results show a functional gain of 19.5 dB (p < 0.05) with the MEI versus unaided condition. SRT improved from 57.4 dB to 44.6 dB with the MEI (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

This fully implanable active MEI offers a reliable option for patients with moderate-to-severe sensorineural or mixed hearing losses especially for those do not tolerate or cannot use conventional hearing aids. It provides significant improvement in hearing as shown in the audiological outcomes. The surgery is relatively straightforward but there is a steep learning curve. The devices are well tolerated by all patients.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Sheffield, UK

    Kimberley Lau, Gianluca Scotta & Jaydip Ray

  2. Edmundo Vasconcelos Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil

    Iulo Barauna

  3. Auditory Implant Unit, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Hospital CUF Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Victor Correia da Silva & Maria Conceição Peixoto

  4. ENT Department, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Glossop Road, Sheffield, S10 2JF, UK

    Kimberley Lau, Gianluca Scotta & Jaydip Ray

Authors
  1. Kimberley Lau
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  2. Gianluca Scotta
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  3. Iulo Barauna
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  4. Victor Correia da Silva
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  5. Maria Conceição Peixoto
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  6. Jaydip Ray
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kimberley Lau.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Lau, K., Scotta, G., Barauna, I. et al. Surgical and audiological outcomes of a fully implantable middle ear implant: early results from a retrospective multicentre study. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 277, 2721–2727 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-05986-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-05986-w

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