MED-EL, an Austrian firm, received FDA clearance for its SYNCHRONY EAS (Electric Acoustic Stimulation) Hearing Implant System. The product is the first hearing aid system that simultaneously works as both a cochlear implant and a more traditional audio amplifier. A central processor with a microphone splits the signal into high and low frequencies. The high frequencies are passed to an implant from which an electric lead is used to stimulate the cochlea, particularly the region responsible for high frequency sounds. The low frequencies are boosted by the conventional device since sensitivity for deeper sounds is often preserved in people with partial deafness.
Here are some of the findings from a clinical trial of the SYNCHRONY EAS according to MED-EL:
Ninety-seven (97) percent of patients participating in the MED-EL EAS clinical trial reported a benefit from EAS within the first 12 months. The study showed that 92 percent of participants reported an improvement in their ability to hear in background noise, one of the most challenging listening environments for people with hearing loss, and 90 percent reported satisfaction with the device overall. Additionally, 97 percent of patients were able to use the acoustic unit built into the audio processor, which can be enabled if patients have low-frequency hearing levels (80 dB or better) remaining after surgery. On average, patients performed more than twice as well on tests of speech understanding with EAS than they did with their hearing aids preoperatively.
Here’s a MED-EL video introducing the SYNCHRONY EAS:
Via: MED-EL USA…