why magnet for implant?

Wirelessly posted

I know. Baha had plenty infections as it is.
 
No opinion of BAHA. I understand is something rather different than a Cochlear Implant.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
Wirelessly posted

I am talking about infection due to opening of skin just to connect external piece. Baha somewhat works that way.
 
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According to Chorost's book, Rebuilt. that is why Cochlear Implants use magnets to avoid infection.
I have no knowledge of BAHA thus no opinion. There is no mention of BAHA in the 3 books on Cochlear Implants that I have.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
drphil said:
According to Chorost's book, Rebuilt. that is why Cochlear Implants use magnets to avoid infection.
I have no knowledge of BAHA thus no opinion. There is no mention of BAHA in the 3 books on Cochlear Implants that I have.
Click to expand...
OK, we got it.
 
Reba & deafgal001. From VIBES-Canadian Hearing Society Summer 2000 an ad on" BAHA". Direct Bone conduction re Outer or middle ear. There is a picture of the device which appears about 1 or 1/12 inch square which "plugs into" a special opening behind one's ear. Thus easy to understand infection. The company is "entific Medical Systems of Canada"

My hearing loss was sensorineural which is entirely different thus I didn't pay much attention to this type.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
RonJaxon said:
Sure I would. I'd worry about pinching my fingers and other parts of my body at times if some magnets move and slam together. But sitting in a room made of magnets wouldn't effect my body at all.

Watch Penn and Tellers BS on the subject sometimes. Here's a youtube video clip of it.
YouTube - Penn and Teller: Placebo Effect

Ron Jaxon
Click to expand...

Is it captioned?
 
The BAHA uses a percutaneous screw that is anchored into the skull. A vibrating sound processor then attahes to this screw which in turn causes vibration of the skull. It is mostly used for conductive hearing loss applications and mild mixed hearing loss applications.

C1
 
The above is my understanding of the use of BAHA. I suspect if one has a BAHA the Cochlear Implant would be unsuitable.

It has been mentioned before of the rejection rate of 60% for Cochlear Implants at Sunnybrook/Toronto on various" physical grounds". I didn't ask about this as I had sensorineural which is "suitable" for a Cochlear Implant.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
drphil said:
According to Chorost's book, Rebuilt. that is why Cochlear Implants use magnets to avoid infection.
I have no knowledge of BAHA thus no opinion. There is no mention of BAHA in the 3 books on Cochlear Implants that I have.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
Click to expand...

The infection that the magnets prevent is the one provided by having an open plug in the head to talk to the electrodes (called a percutaneous plug). These were done in early research implants (like the ineraid and storrs devices).

The early prototype Nucleus devices did not have the percutaneous plugs (to prevent infection) and used a transmitter receiver paradigm very similar to what is used in modern devices. However, they did not have magnets. They were held in place by straps and headbands, which worked but were very awkward. The invent of the magnet was a clever idea to keep the coil in the right place.

Here is a picture of Richard Dowell (audiologist) testing Rod Saunders in 1979. Rod was the very first person with a Nucleus implant (and one of my personal heroes). You can see the coil held in place by a headband.\

image011.png


And in this picture you can see Joe Tong (early researcher / psychophysicist) testing George Watson in 1980. George was the second person ever to receive a Nucleus test device (shortly after Rod). You can see the athletic style headband that was used to hold the coil in place. Also, note in George's hands is the very first Nucleus "portable" speech processor. Imagine that is now worn behind the ear!

image015.png
 
It is a fascinating history of Cochlear Implants. Which to date is evolving. I noticed the George Watson carrying the power supply on his right arm. I just put the "worn out" battery to be recharged over night into the recharging unit. What a difference! Seems we have benefited from lap top computer power systems.

Again Michael Chorost's book: Rebuilt is also a history of Cochlear Implants.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
drphil said:
It is a fascinating history of Cochlear Implants. Which to date is evolving. I noticed the George Watson carrying the power supply on his right arm. I just put the "worn out" battery to be recharged over night into the recharging unit. What a difference! Seems we have benefited from lap top computer power systems.

Again Michael Chorost's book: Rebuilt is also a history of Cochlear Implants.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
Click to expand...

Actually, that's the speech processor and not just the battery. The electronics were HUGE!

Mike's book is wonderful, I agree. Another book to check out is Sounds From Silence by Graeme Clark. I don't like the book as much as Chorost's book, but it tells the early story from Clark's perspective. Graeme Clark was the leader of the research team in Melbourne Australia which developed the Nucleus device. It completely ignores all of the CI development in the US and Europe, but it does make for an interesting book to read through.
 
Chorost does mention Graeme Clark of Australia.His is the only book on Cochlear Implants in the local library To me the most interesting fact was how recent our Cochlear Implants really are. Not like Hearing aids.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
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