As I have written many times in the past some of the best information that I receive about Meniere’s disease is from the comments that are left on the blog posts. A couple of comments last week were about a new implant being developed by Dr. Santina at Johns Hopkins. The implant is a vestibular prosthesis.
Excerpt from Ryan…
Have you heard about the vestibular prosthesis to restore balance coming out of John Hopkins? Very good news for all us Meniere’s sufferer.
Check it out if you have time. I believe it works like a cochlear implant except it restores balance. I believe the Doctors name is Santina.
Excerpt from Susan…
I read the vestibular prosthesis about Dr. Santina at John Hopkins.
I emailed him and he responded that he hopes to be implanting them in humans within a year or two. Good stuff. Brilliant man.
I also found out today that Dr Rubenstein has developed a
vestibular prosthesis as well that acts as a pacemaker for the inner ear for Meniere’s patient in much the same way one does for the heart.
He begins implanting them in humans in the next few
weeks. Excellent results animal models with induced Hydrops…
What makes this exciting is that it would help you maintain your balance after your vestibular system had been damaged. Remember that the gentamicin injections destroy the vestibular system in whatever ear has the shots. I know in my case that my balance took a long time to recover after the first set of injections and it taking a while after this set of gent injections.
There is a really good article in Forbes that helps explain what doctor Santina is doing. I would definitely recommend reading it. Another good post about Dr. Santina and his work is from audilogyonline.com (it is from 2007 but still very interesting).
Feel free to comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
10 comments:
David:
I pray for dr Santina and dr Rubinstein every night.
These are truly groundbreaking people who will go down in history as great minds who brought releif to people when everybody said it was impossible. My father got a laby in the late 70's and at that time a cochlear implant only existed in somebody's imagination and mind. Now look. Hard work, energy, tireless dedication and a wealth of god given
intellect has driven these men to change the world
for so many of us. I cried when I read this. If they can pull this off I will get to spend the rest of my days as a normal person.
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer,
I also hope that this leads to relief from this terrible disorder.
thanks for the comment
David
Seriously? OMG, this would be a godsend. I will start keeping tabs on these developments. I knew a researcher at Stanford was working on how to get the hair cells to regenerate, which would let us get our damaged hearing back, but this would be even better. Thanks for posting this news...
David
a man and a dream can achieve amazing things. In my darkest hour
dr Santina has given me hope. If and when this becomes a reality, the meniers and balance deficit should honor this man in some way. I called his lab at Hopkins he picked up the phone and I almost choked on my lunch. I just said thank you and started to cry. All he said was I am working around the clock to take away your pain, hopefully in several years you will have your life back.
If all these things come to fruition it will be a great day for all of us!
David
Three years ago I went to a gun range to help raise the spirits of my brother by getting him outside with his back injury. Ironically, I damaged my own vestibular nerve/inner right ear when I held a .357 with +P ammo the wrong way for 20+ rounds. Even to this day with tinnitus and balance trouble, it's hard to sleep and coffee helps control the mild dizziness after I wake up each morning. I sometimes bump into corners and have to catch my balance from time to time.
I hope and pray for research and all the best for all you.
Thanks Mr. Kelly for the comment! It really seems that coffee is being looked at in a new light.
stay in touch
David
David,
Any info on whether the devices can be implanted into someone who only has one vestibular nerve, but is bilateral?
Thanks,
S
@s
yes the implant will work iif you have had a vns or a laby. I emailed The Hopkins lab and they only need one connected ear. Very exciting.
Ryan
Thanks everybody for the comments and information
David
Post a Comment