Electrical Stimulation of the Cochlea for Treatment of Chronic Disabling Tinnitus

I posted on here a while ago how they were having a hard time recruiting. I contacted them about a year ago and they were still accepting but I was excluded due to the medication. People here need to be more proactive about signing up for the clinical trials.

 

The study concludes in December 2024 with results published sometime after that, so mid to late 2025. They enrolled 9 participants in the end.

→ Novel Tinnitus Implant System for the Treatment of Chronic Severe Tinnitus

 

I think this, or Dr. Hamid Djalilian’s work is the most promising. He drew up a mock of a potential device.

@Markku, has anyone reached out to Dr. Hamid Djalilian regarding the status of his device?

 

I almost did a clinical trial in Boston for tinnitus via intravenous Lidocaine but they were doing so many fMRIs before and after the infusion that it was a no go with my hyperacusis. But that will be an interesting one to see.

Mayo Clinic is supposed to be reputable. Do you have any knowledge of how this implant works or where it gets inserted? Is it a cochlear implant? The word 'implant' makes it seem more invasive than other things out there.

 

It's all in this thread. Basically it's a middle ear implant, that sits behind the mastoid bone and stimulates the cochlear. The patient has a remote and can switch the electrical stimulation on and off. The program contains multiple different waves like sine waves, square waves and so on.

It's much less invasive than a cochlear implant.

 

Matthew Carlson has already placed a device, which I guess is very similar, in 9 patients.

My initial thoughts.

 

And don't forget the 'other' Auricle (https://auricle.com/) is developing an implant that stimulates the cochlea externally to treat hearing loss that falls in the gray zone of not bad enough to justify a true cochlear implant. If successful, this may also offer the possibility of tinnitus relief.

 

I was looking over this recently. It's a small startup of two people. From Twitter conversations, they are looking for investors. In November 2023, Dr. Francis Wong said they wanted to start a clinical trial in two years, with a view to market in five years.

 

Thank you @Markku for following up! Appreciate you!

 

I really cannot fault your proactivity. I'm very grateful, as are most of the Tinnitus Talk group.

It's actually cleared up the differences between the devices, too!

 

I had a consultation with Dr. Djalilian yesterday. He is such a nice doctor who seems to be vested in treating and curing tinnitus.

We talked about his migraine protocol and the middle ear implants. He said he is still working on manufacturing the devices and that they need to get FDA approval for clinical trials. He believes his device will likely eliminate tinnitus when used. He said it would be a few more years before it hits the market.

He is also developing a way to regenerate hearing.

I believe the middle ear implants are the way forward.

 

I agree with you. I think middle ear implants are really promising; it seems that some patients (8 of 22, according to the paper) got their tinnitus totally eliminated.

However, I am really confused about the last paragraph of the paper. Does that mean patients without hearing loss are unlikely to benefit from the trans-tympanic cochlear promontory stimulation?

 

It's saying insurance won't pay for a cochlear implant for someone who has tinnitus but mild/moderate hearing loss. Maybe more studies like this will change that.

 

In the interview, they mentioned testing electrical stimulation of the cochlear using a probe, mainly on patients with no usable hearing, to ensure that it did not cause hearing loss.

 

I never thought about it before, but is this first generation of implants being developed as fully internal?

I'm guessing semi-implanted with an external portion (usually the audio processor, right?) wouldn't make much sense for someone with tinnitus but otherwise good hearing.

But that makes me wonder if they would be able to combine this technology with existing implants as well.

 

The device is fully implanted in the middle ear space. The patient has a remote control to switch it on and off.

 

Thanks for pointing me towards this thread. I look forward to seeing the Dr. Hamid Djalilian Q&A in August.

I hope I’m not off-topic, but from what I gather, cochlear implants themselves have a decent chance of reducing tinnitus, so why are they not being used in very severe tinnitus cases?

 

It's not off-topic, as this research was inspired by cochlear implants. Although the implant is not in the cochlea, it is placed in the middle ear through a small surgical procedure.

You need to be very deaf to get a cochlear implant. Although it does not guarantee that it will reduce tinnitus, it often does. Also, the surgery damages residual hearing, although drugs like SENS-401 are in clinical trials to preserve some hearing.

 

Do we have any updates about Matthew Carlson’s work? I emailed his assistant a week ago, but there was no response.

 

I was skimming through the patents and claims for Dr. Carlson's tinnitus implant. I can see how it's more invasive than Dr Djalilian's approach.

→ Google Patents: Devices and methods for treating tinnitus using electrical stimulation

 

A new study with 30 participants (15 in the intervention group and 15 in the placebo group) has been published.

→ Suppression of Severe Tinnitus Via Acute Electrical Stimulation of The Round Window Niche: A Randomized Controlled Trial

 

Thanks for posting. It looks great and should further validate Dr. Djalilian's ear implant work.

It feels like someone will crack the problem of tinnitus using this method.

 

This is the future for effective tinnitus treatment.

 

Nice! I see hope that a market-ready solution will exist by 2030. The approach seems similar to what Dr. Djalilian and the Mayo Clinic are doing, and the results have been consistently good to very good.

Dr. Djalilian mentions that it works in 60-70% of cases, and it worked here as well, achieving complete suppression. In fact, it was even reduced by another 20%. These are promising prospects.

Hopefully, the belief that "there will never be anything" will gradually come to an end, and we will have a chance at a happier life in the foreseeable future.

 

I want to ensure I’m reading this correctly—this sounds like a great result! I'm crossing my fingers that Dr. Djalilian’s work on middle ear implants will likely achieve similar success.

Do we know what will be done with these findings? Are they moving forward with a plan to commercialize this treatment for tinnitus sufferers?

 

This is unbelievable—86.7% of participants experienced total or partial tinnitus suppression. That’s better than most treatments for many conditions. The fact that they didn’t continue working on this since the 1970s is outrageous. We could have had a treatment decades ago.

Governments should support Dr. Djalilian so we can develop something like this as soon as possible, with emergency approval and use!

 

I hope they can maintain such good results on a larger scale, but yes, the results are impressive.