Posture, Gait, Quality of Life, and Hearing with a Vestibular Implant

Bilateral vestibulopathy patients’ perspectives on vestibular implant treatment: a qualitative study

“…Currently, evidence for an effective treatment for BV in the clinical practice is lacking [9,[12][13][14]. However, it has been demonstrated that partial artificial restoration of the vestibular function, in particular the vestibulo-ocular reflex, the vestibulo-collic reflex, and postural responses, is possible for BV patients through electrical stimulation of the vestibular nerve using a vestibular implant [15][16][17][18]. It was shown that the vestibular implant is able to provide a functional benefit: the visual acuity in dynamic conditions could be improved and even normalized for patients suffering from BV [19,20].…”

Current and future challenges in otorhinolaryngology

“…Regarding the vestibular system, the lines of research involve: understanding how age alters the vestibular function, thus influencing mobility and the risk of falling in the elderly with the involvement of genetics; development of new technologies for vestibular evaluation and rehabilitation through the use of the vestibulo-ocular reflex and / or virtual reality. The study of a vestibular implant developed and performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital could be an important help for patients with partial or total vestibular deficiency 6 .…”

Editorial: Vestibular Contributions to Health and Disease, Volume II-Dedicated to Bernard Cohen

“…Guyot et al provide a tribute to Bernie's scientific accomplishments and in particular focus on his work in the 1960's when he and Suzuki first showed that individual canal ampullary nerves could be activated with stimulation provided by electrodes implanted in the canal's ampulla (5). This work provided the foundation for the vestibular prosthesis, which has been in development for the past two-decades in animal models and has more recently moved into clinical trials (7). Maruta provides another tribute to Bernie and his scientific contributions, tracing the broad range of his research interests and contributions which touch on nearly all aspects of vestibular function.…”

“…Indeed, applying scientific observations to improve understanding of clinical vestibular problems was one of the hallmarks of his career. For example, Bernie was the first to demonstrate that vestibular afferent nerves could be activated using implanted electrodes (5), work which has been fundamental to the development of the vestibular prosthesis (6,7); he became fascinated with vestibular-autonomic interactions (8) and the possibility that the aberrant orthostatic responses that can underlie fainting could be habituated using vestibular stimulation; and he sought to understand the pathophysiology of mal de debarquement syndrome (MdDS), and with his colleagues Sergei Yakushin and the late Mingjia Dai, developed the first treatment approach for this recalcitrant disorder (9) which is currently being tested in a clinical trial.…”