Fully Implanted Cochlear Implants

Implantable devices have been around for years, including devices for people who are d/Deaf and/or hard of hearing. However, cochlear implants (CIs), which have been shown to assist both children and adults access auditory input and learn/relearn to listen and speak, are not fully implantable. Currently, CIs are considered semi-implantable— a portion is implanted into the recipient’s head (electrodes, etc.), but relies upon the external components (sound processor and battery) to function. 

There are many reasons fully implantable devices are desirable to patients, including the risk of damaging or losing the external pieces, the inability to use while sleeping, swimming, or exercising strenuously, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatibility, and more. One challenge to the development of a fully implantable CI is the need for a microphone that can be implanted and will not deteriorate or irritate, and still provide great listening abilities. In addition, a fully implantable sustainable power source has not been developed, and remains the primary challenge for the development of fully implanted CIs. 

Babajanian and colleagues (2024) completed a review of the literature and summarized their findings on the development of a fully implanted CI. They concluded that the realization of a commercially available implantable CI may be sooner rather than later with the use of middle-ear microphone technologies. However, the struggle continues in the development of a fully implantable energy source, but recent and promising research may make external charging of a CI unnecessary. 

Reference

Babajanian EE, Dornhoffer JR, Driscoll CLW. (2024) Fully Implanted Cochlear Implants. Curr Otorhinolaryngol (accessed June 7, 2024).