The Balanced Electromagnetic Separation Transducer for Bone Conduction Audiometry and Hearing Rehabilitation

• Hearing via air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC) are attributed to bethe natural ways of conducting sound to the cochlea. With AC hearing, air pressurevariations are transmitted to the cochlea via the ear canal, whereas with BChearing, sound vibrations are transmitted through the skull bone to the cochlea.Patients with a hearing loss in the cochlea or auditory nerve are commonly rehabilitatedwith conventional AC hearing aids in the ear canal, but also using cochlearimplants. If the pathway for AC sound to reach the cochlea is obstructed, patientscan often benet from bone conduction devices (BCDs). In order to determinethe type and degree of hearing loss, the BC hearing thresholds are measured usinga bone conduction vibrator, and then analyzed together with the AC hearingthresholds for the diagnosis and to suggest an appropriate rehabilitation alternative.The motor unit in conventional BCDs and bone vibrators are known togenerate high amount of distortion at low frequencies where the Balanced ElectromagneticSeparation Transducer (BEST) principle may oer a new era in BChearing rehabilitation and audiometry.This thesis combines two BC hearing related topics, where the rst topic is anevaluation of a new audiometric bone vibrator, Radioear B81, which is assumedto oer more accurate BC hearing threshold measurements. The second topic isrelated to a new type of active transcutaneous BCD, called the Bone ConductionImplant (BCI), which leaves the skin intact by using a wireless solution thatdoes not require a permanent skin penetration. Even though the applications aredierent, both devices use the BEST principle as motor unit in their design.The audiometric bone vibrator Radioear B81 was found to have an improvedperformance at low frequencies where it can produce higher output levels with lessharmonic distortion than the conventional Radioear B71. In a clinical study of therst six patients, the BCI was found as ecient as already commercially availableBCDs, and with the advantage of not needing a skin penetration. In a technicalevaluation of the BCI, it was shown to be a mechanically robust design and totolerate magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5 Tesla.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Medicinteknik -- Medicinsk laboratorie- och mätteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Medical Engineering -- Medical Laboratory and Measurements Technologies (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Medicinteknik -- Medicinsk apparatteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Medical Engineering -- Medical Equipment Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Medicinteknik -- Medicinsk bildbehandling (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Medical Engineering -- Medical Image Processing (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

retention magnet

bone vibrator

demagnetization

bone conduction

balanced electromagnetic separation transducer

magnetically induced torque

image artifact

magnetic resonance imaging

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