Implant Restores Inner Ear Balance
From: Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry - 10/2007 - page 37
By: Maria Fontanazza

Johns Hopkins researchers are developing a device similar to a cochlear
implant that partially restores balance in patients who have lost crucial
sensory cells. The multichannel prosthesis senses head movements and sends
the information to the brain via electrodes connected to the vestibular
nerve.  

"Our new device measures and encodes head rotation in all three dimensions,
stimulating three or more branches of the vestibular nerve," says Charles
Della Santina, MD, PhD, assistant professor of otolaryngology at the Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore). "Because we move our heads
in a 3-D world, this is an important step toward a clinically useful
prosthesis for people who have lost their inner-ear sensory cells for
balance." Della Santina is also director of the Vestibular Neuroengineering
Laboratory at Johns Hopkins.  

Read the entire article at:
http://www.devicelink.com/mddi/archive/07/10/014.html

Links:
Charles Della Santina
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/otolaryngology/della.html

Inner ear implant may bring balance back
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn11173-inner-ear-implant-may-bring-balance-back.html

Development of a Multichannel Implantable Prosthesis for Restoration of 3D
    Vestibular Function 
http://www.bioen.utah.edu/seminars/presentation.php?id=17

Electrical implant helps balance disorder
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070808-17302400-bc-us-balance.xml