Modiolar proximity of three perimodiolar cochlear implant electrodes.
A new generation of cochlear implant electrodes has been designed to position the stimulating contacts close to the modiolus in order to reduce power consumption and increase stimulation selectivity. The purpose of this study was to assess electrode position in the cochlea for three recently designed electrodes. Fifteen cadaveric temporal bones were implanted with one of three perimodiolar electrode arrays: Nucleus Contour; Med-El Combi40+ PM (developmental version); and Clarion HiFocus II. Image-enhanced videofluoroscopy and computer morphometrics were used to assess stimulating contact position relative to the modiolus. The mean distance (+/- 1 standard deviation) to the modiolus for all electrode contacts was 0.33 (+/-0.24), 0.30 (+/-0.27) and 0.16 mm (+/-0.19) for the Contour, Combi40+ PM and HiFocus II arrays, respectively. In addition, dynamic videofluoroscopy was used to correlate device-specific insertion characteristics with contact-to-modiolus distance. All three devices were successful in terms of locating electrode contacts very close to the modiolar wall.
University of Miami Ear Institute, Florida 33136, USA. tbalkany@miami.edu
Thomas J
TJ
Balkany
Adrien A
AA
Eshraghi
Nathaniel
N
Yang
D000328:Adult; D003051:Cochlea / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D046508:Culture Techniques; D003638:Deafness / Q000601:surgery*; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D004867:Equipment Design; D005471:Fluoroscopy / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D013701:Temporal Bone / Q000601:surgery; D020535:Video-Assisted Surgery / Q000379:methods