Soft, Conformable Hearing Implants

Close to half a million people around the world suffer from a serious hearing impairment. In some cases, they can find relief in cochlear and other types of implants. Yet these devices do not help people whose inner ear is damaged or whose auditory nerve does not function properly. For these patients to recover their sense of hearing, electrical signals must be sent directly to the auditory brainstem. The neuroprosthetic used for this purpose is called an auditory brainstem implant (ABI); however, the outcomes of ABIs are mixed and in many cases, patients recover only sound perception. Clinical ABIs are also stiff and cannot conform precisely to the curvature of the auditory brainstem.