Functionally deaf patients can gain normal hearing with a
new implant that replaces the middle ear. The unique invention from the
Chalmers University of Technology has been approved for a clinical study. The
first operation was performed on a patient in December 2012.
With the new hearing implant, developed at Chalmers in
collaboration with Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, the patient
has an operation to insert an implant slightly less than six centimetres long
just behind the ear, under the skin and attached to the skull bone itself. The
new technique uses the skull bone to transmit sound vibrations to the inner
ear, so-called bone conduction.