Summating Potential as Marker of Intracochlear Position in Bipolar Electrocochleography

Abstract

Objectives: Cochlear implantation criteria include subjects with residual low-frequency hearing. To minimize implantation trauma and to avoid unwanted interactions of electric- and acoustic stimuli, it is often recommended to stop cochlear implantation before the cochlear implant (CI) reaches the cochlear partition with residual hearing, as determined by an audiogram. For this purpose, the implant can be used to record acoustically evoked signals during implantation, including cochlear compound action potentials (CAP), cochlear microphonics (CMs), and summating potentials (SPs). The former two have previously been used to monitor residual hearing in clinical settings. Design: In the present study we investigated the use of intracochlear, bipolar SP recordings to determine the exact cochlear position of the contacts of implanted CIs in guinea pig cochleae (n = 13). Polarity reversals of SPs were used as a functional marker of intracochlear position. Micro computed tomography (µCT) imaging and a modified Greenwood function were used to determine the cochleotopic positions of the contacts in the cochlea. These anatomical reconstructions were used to validate the SP-based position estimates. Results: The precision of the SP-based position estimation was on average within ± 0.37 octaves and was not impaired by moderate hearing loss caused by noise exposure after implantation. It is important to note that acute hearing impairment did not reduce the precision of the method. The cochleotopic position of CI accounted for ~70% of the variability of SP polarity reversals. Outliers in the dataset were associated with lateral CI positions. Last, we propose a simplified method to avoid implantation in functioning parts of the cochlea by approaching a predefined frequency region using bipolar SP recordings through a CI. Conclusions: Bipolar SP recordings provide reliable information on electrode position in the cochlea. The position estimate remains reliable after moderate hearing loss. The technique presented here could be applied during CI surgery to monitor the CI approach to a predefined frequency region.

ZH-ECochG Bode Plot: A Novel Approach to Visualize Electrocochleographic Data in Cochlear Implant Users

“…Instead, they showed the growth functions of the amplitude of ECochG, ECochG responses recorded from a single location before and after insertion, or ECochG thresholds for different stimuli, amongst others. The remaining 74 studies [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 15 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 24 , 25 , 34 , 35 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 48 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 ...…”

Intracochlear Recording of Electrocochleography During and After Cochlear Implant Insertion Dependent on the Location in the Cochlea

“… O'Connell et al (2017 ) did not detect a clear relation with 16 patients, but of course, the later speech perception was worse than in cases without electrode deviations. Baumhoff et al (2022 ) investigated whether intracochlearly recorded SP could be used for estimating the position of the electrode in the cochlea in guinea pigs. The evaluation was done using a µCT.…”