Canale Andrea, Dagna Federico, Lacilla Michelangelo, Montuschi Carla, Di Rosa Rosalba, Albera Roberto
Città della Salute e della Scienza, University of Torino, Turin, Italy.
Città della Salute e della Scienza, University of Torino, Turin, Italy
Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2015 Sep;124(9):757-60. doi: 10.1177/0003489415582258. Epub 2015 Apr 13.
To present the first reported case of intraneural direct cochlear nerve stimulation in a human being.
This is a case report.
A 23-year-old patient with bilateral progressive hearing loss associated with bilateral complete semicircular canal aplasia and ossified cochleas underwent cochlear implantation. During surgery, a patent cochlear lumen could not be found, and the array was positioned in the internal auditory canal adjacent to the cochlear nerve. Against our expectations, an assiduous rehabilitation and frequent fitting adjustments have led to a word recognition score, in open set speech with lip reading, of 18/25 and acceptable frequency discrimination.
We are aware that this was an anomalous use of the cochlear implant, and it is not our aim to suggest a new indication for cochlear array positioning. However, this case shows that auditory perception, to some degree, can be obtained with intraneural direct cochlear nerve stimulation.
