(Cochlear Ltd.)
On 21 October, a University of Washington Medical Center (UW Medicine) patient will receive the world’s first device designed to quell vertigo associated with Ménière’s disease. The UW Medicine team that developed the implantable device plans a 10-person surgical trial of Ménière’s patients, which they hope will lead to its eventual use with other common balance disorders.
Ménière’s disease is a disorder of the inner ear — usually affecting one ear — that causes severe dizziness (vertigo), ringing in the ears (tinnitus), hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness or congestion in the ear. Its episodic attacks are thought to stem from the rupture of an inner-ear membrane. Endolymphatic fluid leaks out of the vestibular system, causing havoc to the brain’s perception of balance.
The disease is most likely to occur in adults between 40 and 60 years of age. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders estimates that approximately 615,000 individuals in the United States are currently diagnosed with Ménière’s disease and that 45,500 cases are newly diagnosed each year.
With their device, its developers — Jay Rubinstein and James Phillips of UW’s Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery — aim to restore the patient’s balance during attacks while leaving natural hearing and residual balance function intact. The patient wears a processor behind the affected ear (pictured left) and activates it as an attack starts. The processor wirelessly signals the device, which is implanted almost directly underneath in a small well created in the temporal bone. The device in turn transmits electrical impulses through three electrodes inserted into the canals of the inner ear’s bony labyrinth.
Promising early test results on primates led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in June, to approve the device and the proposed surgical implantation procedure. Cochlear Ltd., a Australian medical equipment company and maker of devices for hearing-impaired people will manufacture the device.
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The pitch that is heard with tinnitus all depends on what the cause of the ringing is. Most of the time if the tinnitus is a side effect of medication, the tone or pitch that is heard is low and almost sounds like a swishing noise. Tinnitus can also manifest as a high pitch ringing also, with various other causes. None the less, if the tinnitus is persistent, you should see a physician.
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