Health Canada Approves MED-EL’s SONATATI100 Cochlear Implant, Featuring New Titanium Housing Option
Smallest and Lightest Weight Titanium Cochlear Implant
Durham, NC—(June 27, 2007)—MED-EL Corporation announced today Health Canada’s approval of the SONATATI100 cochlear implant.
The SONATATI100 features MED-EL’s advanced I100 electronics in a new compact titanium housing, providing a choice between the industry-leading ceramic and new titanium housing technologies. “The SONATATI100 offers cochlear implant candidates and their surgeons a new choice in housing as they evaluate implant options,” said Kim Jackson, Vice President of Clinical Services. “The smaller incision required for this implant translates to a smaller surgical site – a key consideration for cochlear implant candidates, particularly children, and an alternate surgical approach for surgeons.”
Engineered for unparalleled precision and performance, the SONATATI100 cochlear implant combines the smallest and lightest weight titanium housing available with MED-EL’s powerful next generation I100 electronics. This technology is essential for MED-EL’s advanced research and developments in the areas of music enjoyment and speech understanding in difficult listening situations. The SONATATI100 is also “future-ready,” designed to implement future upgrades and enhancements.
Available features include:
Sophisticated I100 electronics for unprecedented sound clarity and detail
Sequential stimulation and biphasic pulses
Impedance and Field Telemetry
A choice of electrode options to address specific medical situations for maximum benefit
Additional features:1
Fast stimulation rates of up to 50,700 pulses per second
Parallel stimulation and triphasic pulses
Safety features, including a unique implant ID
Status Telemetry and Auditory Nerve Response Telemetry (ARTTM)
The electronic components of MED-EL’s cochlear implants are arranged on a single custom-designed ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) microchip. The microchip allows more information to be processed, while maintaining low energy requirements. MED-EL’s power-efficient technology makes it possible to provide recipients the benefits of high-rate stimulation with the comfort of a behind-the-ear (BTE) speech processor. This energy efficiency translates into long battery life, typically three to five days of use per set of batteries.
Additionally, the SONATATI100 has 24 independent current sources for highly precise, high-rate stimulation over the entire length of the cochlea. Research has shown that an optimal rate causes the auditory nerve to behave as in the normal hearing process. MED-EL’s cochlear implants mimic this process (stochastic behavior) by stimulating at rates matching the abilities of the recipient’s auditory nerve.
About Hearing Loss in Canada
One in 10 Canadians has some form of hearing loss.2 Hearing loss is the most common sensory impairment in adults over the age of 65, affecting more than 30% of Canadians in this age group.3 According to one study, respondents indicated that their hearing loss had lead to isolation and increased stress levels – and were left with no opportunities of methods of coping with these feelings. The same study found that 94% indicated that their life was stressful because of hearing loss, 88% said activities such as attending the theater and sports events were difficult to understand and 82% felt left out of family events.4 A recent survey by the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association found that hard of hearing and deafened respondents fared remarkably in finishing elementary school and university level education, with rates similar to those of adults without disabilities. However, the fact that 42% of the respondent’s household income falls in or near the low income cut-off in Canada suggests the education level achievement does not translate into high-income employment.5
About MED-EL Corporation Since its founders developed one of the world’s first cochlear implants in 1975, MED-EL has set new standards in hearing implant technologies, developing and manufacturing technologically advanced hearing solutions for people with varying degrees of hearing loss. MED-EL hearing implant systems, currently used in 80 countries, combines the latest scientific advances, engineering and manufacturing techniques for performance, safety and reliability.
In addition to SONATATI100, products available in Canada include the proven PULSARCI100, the smallest cochlear implant available as well as MED-EL’s most advanced speech processors, the OPUS 1 and OPUS 2.
MED-EL also recently launched the VIBRANT SOUNDBRIDGE® in the USA, the first FDA-approved implantable middle ear prosthesis indicated for use in adults who have moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss and who cannot medically tolerate an acoustic hearing aid. For more information, visit www.medel.com or call 888-MED-EL-CI (633-3524).
1. Accessibility dependent on future software implementation and regulatory clearance.
2. Hearing Loss Info-Sheet for Seniors.” Division of Aging and Seniors, Public Health Agency of Canada. Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2006.
3. Hearing Loss Info-Sheet for Seniors.” Division of Aging and Seniors, Public Health Agency of Canada. Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2006.
4. J Gibson, C Gibson. Listen/Écoute, Fall 2004. 5. Canadian Hard of Hearing Association. “The 2005 Canadian Hard of Hearing Consumers Survey Report.” pp 27-30; 2005. http://www.chha.ca/documents/2005_survey_consumer.pdf
