Piezo-electric middle ear implant hearing aid experimental model in guinea-pig

Some mixed or sensorineural hearing losses currently depend on conventional hearing aids. But during the last 5 years hearing aids implanted in the middle ear have been under study. Using a piezo-electric transducer, an animal model in guinea pig was developed. Chronic and acute experimentations were realised. With piezo electric transducer chronically implanted, thresholds for click evoqued action potentials of the auditory nerve required electric level of about 100 mV. The vibrator was well tolerated. Then other positions of the vibrator were tested during acute experimentations. It appears that the best place to put the vibrator is on the ossicular chain. These results confirm other studies from Yanagihara and all.