Context

The Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) department at Command Hospital in Pune conducted two piezoelectric Bone Conduction Hearing Implants (BCI).

• It became the first government hospital across the country to procure and conduct successful piezoelectric bone conduction hearing implants.

Active Piezoelectric Bone Conduction Hearing Implant System

• It is an implantable medical electronic device for hearing impaired patients [conductive loss (including aural atresia), mixed hearing loss and single-sided deafness]
• Bone conduction implantation is the definitive hearing solution for certain groups of patients with conductive/ mixed hearing loss or patients with single sided deafness, who are not candidates for cochlear implantation and do not benefit with hearing aids or middle-ear surgery.

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Bone Conduction Implant: How it Works?

• Discovery: Bone conduction implant was discovered by Ludwig van Beethoven, the famous 18th century composer who was almost completely deaf. Beethoven found a way to hear the sound of the piano through his jawbone by attaching a rod to his piano and clenching it in his teeth. 

• Ways of Hearing: 

• • Eardrums (air-conducted or air-transmitted):

    • The vibrations from the environment travel through the air to our eardrums. 
    • The eardrums in turn vibrate, decoding these sound waves into a different type of vibrations that are received by the Cochlea, also known as the inner ear. 
    • The Cochlea is connected to our auditory nerve, which transmits the sounds to our brain.

• • Bones  (bone-conducted or bone-transmitted): 

• • • Bone Conduction bypasses the eardrums whereby the bone conduction devices (such as headphones) perform the role of eardrums. 
    • These devices decode sound waves and convert them into vibrations that can be received directly by the Cochlea so the eardrum is never involved.
    •  The sound reach the ears as vibrations through the bones (or skull) and skin.