Audio Guidance for Optimal Placement of an Auditory Brainstem Implant with Magnetic Navigation and Maximum Clinical Application Accuracy

For patients with ineffective auditory nerve and complete hearing loss, Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI) [1] presents diversity of hearing sensations to help with sound consciousness and communication. At present, during the surgical intervention, surgeons use preoperative patient images to determine optimal position of an ABI on cochlear nucleus on brainstem. When found, the optimal position is marked and mentally mapped by the surgeon; Next, the surgeon tries to locate the optimal position in patient’s head again and places the ABI. The aim of this project is to provide the surgeon with maximum clinical application accuracy guidance to store the optimal position for the implant, and to provide intuitive audio guidance for positioning the implant at the stored optimal position. By using three audio methods, in combination with visual information on Image-Guided Surgery (IGS), surgeon should spend less time looking at the screen, and more time focused on the patient.