Med-El Elektromedizinische Geraete Gmbh

Thomas Lechleitner

Markus Nagl

Wolfgang Amrhein

Peter Lampacher

Michael Santek

Günther Weidenholzer

Gunther Weidenholzer

An implantable bone conduction transducer arrangement includes a transducer housing having an outer surface with a side wall and opposing ends. A pair of fixation projections are connected to the transducer housing at one end. Each fixation projection includes a bone screw opening configured for insertion of a bone fixation screw to engage underlying skull bone. At least one fixation projection is configured to be independently moveable relative to the transducer housing to form an adjustable relative position between the fixation projections.

Variable transducer fixation

An external component for a bone conduction hearing implant is described. An external housing contains an electromagnetic drive coil, a coil core, and at least one spacer container located adjacent to one of the longitudinal ends of the coil core and configured to hold an optional removable spacer piece. The coil core and any pole pieces and side pieces are configured to magnetically interact with an implant magnet in the bone conduction transducer in the absence of electrical current in the drive coil to hold the external housing in the fixed attachment on the skin of the hearing implant patient over the bone conduction transducer. And electrical current in the drive coil magnetically interacts with the coil core and any pole pieces and side pieces to generate the implant communication signals to the implant magnet to create a mechanical vibration signal in the bone conduction transducer for perception by the patient as sound.

Bone conduction transducer system with adjustable retention force

An arrangement is described for a hearing implant system. An implantable housing has an outer surface configured to lie under and parallel to the skin of the implanted patient. An implant magnet arrangement is located within the implantable housing and has multiple local magnetic sections with different independent local magnetic fields that are combined together to form a net magnetic field with at least two-fold symmetry and zero net magnetic dipole moment, wherein the magnetic fields are oriented parallel to the outer surface of the implant housing.

Symmetric magnet arrangement for medical implants

An implantable magnetic transducer arrangement is described for a hearing implant in a recipient patient. An implant housing hermetically encapsulates an interior housing volume and is fixedly attached to skull bone beneath the skin of the patient. A magnetic transducer is located within the housing volume and includes multiple pie-shaped permanent magnets wherein adjacent magnets have different direction magnetic polarities, and one or more suspension elements that resiliently couple adjacent magnets to allow their relative movement. The magnetic transducer is operatively coupled to an external magnetic drive component above the skin of the patient to form an oscillating system that develops a mechanical stimulation signal to the implant housing for delivery by bone conduction of the skull bone as an audio signal to the cochlea of the patient.

Magnet arrangement for bone conduction hearing implant

An implantable magnetic transducer arrangement is described for a hearing implant in a recipient patient. An implant housing hermetically encapsulates an interior housing volume and is fixedly attached to skull bone beneath the skin of the patient. A magnetic transducer is located within the housing volume and includes multiple permanent magnets wherein adjacent magnets have opposite magnetic polarities, and one or more suspension elements that resiliently couple adjacent magnets to allow their relative movement. The magnetic transducer forms a coupled oscillating system with an external magnetic drive component above the skin of the patient to develop a mechanical stimulation signal to the implant housing for delivery by bone conduction of the skull bone as an audio signal to the cochlea of the patient.

Growing community of inventors

Polling, Austria

Thomas Lechleitner