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| RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT > Audiology |
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Hearing Implants and Hearing Aids
The cochlear implant has given hearing to over 100,000 people worldwide. The Lions
Ear and Hearing Institute has a strong surgical and audiological
team that provides total care for the patients, from thorough
pre-surgical assessment and counselling, through to surgery and
rehabilitation.
Surgeons at the Institute also implant the Bone Anchored Hearing Aid
(BAHA). This device is suitable for people with a profound hearing
loss on one side. It uses the good sound conduction properties of
bone to transmit sound from the 'deaf' side to the other ear. It has
proved most successful in improving the patients' quality of life.
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Research Projects
Residual hearing - Until recently it was assumed that any hearing
left in an ear receiving a cochlear implant was destroyed by the
surgical procedure. Initial investigation on some of our patients
show that this is not the case, and that some hearing remains. We
are involved in a collaborative study to assess the residual hearing
on a large group of patients. It is possible that devices will be
developed in the future that can harness this residual hearing.
Bone Anchored Hearing Aids (BAHA) - ESIA is involved in two
BAHA research projects.
We head a collaborative study with centres
in Sydney and Brisbane, to measure the hearing, speech
discrimination and sound localisation of patients who have received
a BAHA. This will be used to develop assessment and patient
selection criteria. This project has required the development of a
number of devices and computer programmes to test the various
audiological factors.
We are also involved in a collaborative study with Cochlear Ltd (the
manufacturer of the BAHA) in a study to test and evaluate a new
model of the BAHA.
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