Hearing aid 'implantable in outpatient surgery'

The new solution is said to be composed of three parts: a case with a microphone and battery; wireless, optical signal and energy transmission between the outer and middle ear; and an electro-acoustic transducer – the centrepiece and loudspeaker of the implant.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart are developing the electro-acoustic transducer, which will eventually be round in shape and measure approximately 1.2mm.

IPA’s partners in the project, which is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, are the University Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery Tübingen, the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute (NMI) at the University of Tübingen, and the hearing aid specialist Auric Hörsysteme.

‘Our goal is to take the better sound quality of implantable hearing aids and combine it with a much simplified operation,’ said Dominik Kaltenbacher, engineer at IPA. ‘To implant our system, all surgeons have to do is make a small incision at the side of the eardrum and then fold it forward. This can be done in outpatient surgery.’