Affiliations: [a] Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Service of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospitals, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| [b] Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Division of Balance Disorders, Faculty of Health Medicine and Life Sciences, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Center, The Netherlands
| [c] Faculty of Physics, Tomsk State University, Russian Federation
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Nils Guinand, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospitals of Geneva, Rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 4, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland. Tel.: +41 22 722 52 98; E-mail: Nils.Guinand@hcuge.ch.
Abstract: The primary goal of the vestibular implant is to restore the vestibular function in patients with a disabling bilateral vestibular loss for whom there is currently no available treatment. The prototype developed by our team is a hybrid system consisting of a modified cochlear implant incorporating additional vestibular electrodes. Therefore, in addition of delivering sound information it is also capable of delivering motion information to the central nervous system using electrical stimulation. To date, thirteen patients have been implanted with such vestibular implant prototypes. For ethical reasons, only deaf ears were implanted and all patients experienced a clinical benefit from the hearing rehabilitation. The recent demonstration of partial restoration of the vestibulo-ocular and the vestibulo-collic reflexes in implanted patients suggests that gaze stabilization and postural control, fundamental functions of the balance system, can be artificially restored using a vestibular implant. This allows us to glimpse a useful clinical application in a near future. In parallel, we show how the vestibular implant provides a unique opportunity to explore the integration of the vestibular sensory input into the multisensory, multimodal balance system in humans, since it is able to selectively stimulate the vestibular system.
