Hearing Implants and Hearing Aids

The cochlear implant has given hearing to over 100,000 people worldwide. Ear Science Institute Australia has a strong surgical and audiological team that provides total care for the patients, from thorough pre-surgical assessment and counselling, through to surgery and rehabilitation.

Surgeons at the Institute also implant the Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA). This device is suitable for people with a profound hearing loss on one side. It uses the good sound conduction properties of bone to transmit sound from the 'deaf' side to the other ear. It has proved most successful in improving the patients' quality of life.

Research Projects

Residual hearing - Until recently it was assumed that any hearing left in an ear receiving a cochlear implant was destroyed by the surgical procedure. Initial investigation on some of our patients show that this is not the case, and that some hearing remains. We are involved in a collaborative study to assess the residual hearing on a large group of patients. It is possible that devices will be developed in the future that can harness this residual hearing.

Bone Anchored Hearing Aids (BAHA) - ESIA is involved in two BAHA research projects.

We head a collaborative study with centres in Sydney and Brisbane, to measure the hearing, speech discrimination and sound localisation of patients who have received a BAHA. This will be used to develop assessment and patient selection criteria. This project has required the development of a number of devices and computer programmes to test the various audiological factors.

We are also involved in a collaborative study with Cochlear Ltd (the manufacturer of the BAHA) in a study to test and evaluate a new model of the BAHA.