CAScination enters new application area

This method is based on a high precision robot system that can drill a precise access tunnel from the outside of the skull to the cochlea with an accuracy scope in the range of the diameter of a human hair. Through this tunnel, implant electrodes can beintroduced minimally invasively and with minimal tissue damage to the cochlea. Theaim of this joint project is to establish a time-saving, and simultaneously safe and gentleimplantation procedure for deaf patients and those with severe hearing impairment.

"The minimally invasive robotic surgical method, in combination with MED-EL's atraumatic electrode arrays, will make a further technological contribution to the preservation of residual hearing and an intact cochlea because today’s implanted children will most likely, throughout their life, have to undergo various therapies," expects Dr. Ingeborg Hochmair, CEO MED-EL.

"We are very proud that we can now demonstrate our existing expertise in the development of new surgical techniques in the extremely demanding field of cochlear implants," shares Dr. Matthias Peterhans, CEO CAScination AG.

The project is based on extensive scientific preparatory studies that were conducted in recent years by the Department of Otolaryngology at the University Hospital of Bern (Prof. Dr. med. Marco Caversaccio) and the ARTORG Center at the University of Bern (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Weber) and based on funding from both the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Comission for Technology and Innovation CTI. For the implementation of the project, CAScination has entered into a license agreement with the University of Bern for the developed method and for the exclusive use of all necessary patents.