Lessons learned from multichannel cochlear implants that are relevant to a visual prosthesis

Abstract

The clinical success of the multichannel cochlear implant was built on the successful outcomes of the multidisciplinary research program led by Professor Graeme Clark at the University of Melbourne and many of the outcomes from these studies can also be applied to other sensory prostheses, including the visual prosthesis. A primary requirement of any neural prosthesis is that it is safe, and this presentation will include studies that define stimulus parameters that allow stable long term responses, with no evidence of metabolic overload or neural degeneration. Any device that is chronically implanted for the life of a patient must be reliable, with a low likelihood of need for replacement because of device failure or infection, and the presentation will include both the results from Clark's infection studies and long term cochlear implant reliability observations. The presentation will describe the design of an experimental retinal prosthesis that uses an electrode array that is based on an array that was used to stimulate the cochlear nucleus of profoundly deaf patients. It will include preliminary results for volunteer patients, and approaches that may improve these pilot study outcomes.