Researchers Developed Implant That Improves Balance Among People With Inner Ear Disorder

Most people can balance themselves when standing or walking. But for some, it takes so much effort to do these simple tasks because they have problems in both their inner ears that drive reflexes to maintain balance automatically.

Around 1.8 million adults worldwide suffer from bilateral vestibular hypofunction (BVH), or the loss of the inner ear's ability to maintain balance. People with this condition have to be mindful to avoid falling constantly.

According to Physiopedia, BVH could cause loss or diminished function, imbalance, oscillopsia, and impaired spatial orientation. Also, patients may present with both auditory and neurological symptoms depending on the cause of their BVH.

The prognosis of those with BVH differs based on the severity of their condition, which depends on the number of comorbidities they have.

But there is some good news for the researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine who have developed an implant that could help those with BVH walk and improve their quality of life.

This stimulator is surgically implanted that electrically bypasses the inner ear's malfunctioning areas and partially restores its sense of balance, Medical Xpress reported.

Vestibular Rehabilitation Exercises

Current therapy available for people with BVH is only limited to vestibular rehabilitation exercises (VR). It is specially designed to alleviate both the primary and secondary problems caused by the inner ear malady, like vertigo and dizziness, gaze instability, and/or imbalance and falls.

Doctors do not recommend patients take drugs that might damage the inner ear or suppress brain function. They also caution them to steer clear from activities that might endanger them, like driving, walking in poorly lit areas, and swimming.

Talking about the new implant, senior study author Dr. Charley Della Santina said that "although about 20 individuals had been implanted elsewhere with devices used to stimulate the vestibular nerve in a laboratory setting, participants in this trial are true pioneers-the first to use a vestibular implant as a long-term, 24-hour-per-day sensory restoration treatment."

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Vestibular Implant Helps In Walking and Improves Quality of Life

Della Santina and his colleagues modified a cochlear implant, a device that electrically stimulates the cochlear nerve in the inner ear to improve hearing, activate the nearby vestibular nerve in response to signals sent by motor sensors on the head.

The electrical pulse strength and timing from the device tell the brain the speed and direction of where the head should turn that will drive head and eye reflexes to a clearer vision during head movement and therefore reduce the need to consciously fall.

There were eight patients in the study assessed before the implant surgery and six months and one year after. According to Medical Xpress, the researchers saw improvements for the group on four of the five posture and gait metrics, as well as on patient-reported outcomes.

All eight patients reported experiencing some hearing loss in the implanted ear. Five maintained hearing in the implanted ear but just enough to use a telephone without a hearing aid, and three experienced more significant hearing loss.

"Improvement in performance on standardized clinical tests of balance and walking has been remarkable," says Margaret Chow, study lead author and biomedical engineering doctoral candidate at The Johns Hopkins University. "Even more gratifying is that our patients have been able to return to activities that enrich their daily lives, such as exercising, riding a bike, gardening or dancing at a daughter's wedding."

A'ndrea Messer, Ph.D., one of the patients in the study and a senior science and research information officer at Penn State University, said that the implant has caused a significant improvement in her life quality and relieved her misery from BVH.

"The multichannel vestibular implant is incredible," Messer said. "Before receiving it, I couldn't walk in the dark, on uneven ground, or without a cane. Now, I can do all of those things and am living a fairly normal life."