The new OSIA implant, operated on a 30 year old patient, is based on the principle of bone conduction. It maintains inner ear function and replaces lost or limited function of outer or middle ear transmission.

“This is a truly unique technology based on the principle of piezoelectric excitation of mechanical energy, which is transferred to the inner ear fluid and perceived by the patient as sound perception,” said Jan Bouček of the Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, 1st School of Medicine, Charles University. and the Motol University Hospital. .

According to him, the patient’s benefit is primarily an increase in the perception of high frequencies, which are important for understanding human speech. “Compared to the older generation of implants, the new implants give patients a gain of up to 17 dB, which is a fundamental difference,” says Bouček.

The operation takes place under general anesthesia and lasts about an hour. The implant, which is firmly embedded in the bone, is inserted into the area behind the ear, who has temporary or combined hearing loss.

The next day after surgery, the patient went home, the stitches were removed after a week, and the implant area was healed for about three more weeks to ensure, as the doctor reminded, good scar tissue at the implant site.

About four weeks after surgery, patients came to adjust the external sound processor according to their own hearing parameters. According to experts, rehabilitation with bone implants is faster than with cochlear implants, because patients feel the sound in the same characteristics as healthy people.

The implant part stays with the patient for the rest of its life, the external part – namely the sound processor – can be removed, refilled, and reattached when the patient needs or just wants to hear.

“Implants based on bone conduction principles have been used worldwide for 30-40 years, in the Czech Republic for 20 years,” associate professor Bouček added to Novinek.

However, according to him, technology continues to develop, the function of implants is reduced and improved.

“The novelty of the presented implant is a completely different principle of generating vibrational energy, that is, the perception of transferred hearing. Now a technology based on the principle of digital piezoelectric stimulation, which is a fundamental novelty and technological improvement in the field of implants based on the principle of bone conduction, is being used,” he concluded.