Neurology & Neurosurgery (see more articles like this)

January 23, 2006 – Orlando, FL – Nurse practitioner Beverly Wicks has a hearing device, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at her.  Wicks has become one of the first patients in Florida to receive a fully implantable hearing device that is allowing her to hear new sounds in life.

“It’s funny to hear my own voice,” Wicks said. “I’m hearing my own teeth click, which I haven’t heard in years.  I didn’t realize I wasn’t hearing that.”

Dr. James Atkins, Jr., neurotologist, implanted Wicks’ hearing device at Florida Hospital Celebration Health, one of only seven centers in the country and the only center in the Southeast, to perform this innovative procedure for patients with moderate to severe nerve loss, the most common type of hearing loss.  Unlike traditional hearing aids, this new device by Otologics is fully implantable and is not seen externally.

“What a lot of people like about this new fully implantable hearing device is that you cannot see anything on the outside,” said Dr. James Atkins, Jr., the neurotologist who performed Wicks’ surgery. “Every part of the device is underneath the patient’s skin, which makes it more comfortable for those patients who do not like the feeling of having something in their ear.”

Also unlike traditional hearing aids, this new device uses a battery that is rechargeable for at least five years.  The battery lasts approximately 60 hours at a time, and then the patient recharges it using a magnetic device that they place near their ear.  A minor surgery is performed when the battery needs to be replaced.

During surgery, Dr. Atkins implants a microphone to pick up sounds, a transducer to amplify those sounds, and the battery.  The hearing device remains deactivated for six-to-eight weeks while the patient recovers and the transducer settles properly against the bone of hearing. 

The patient then returns to the doctor’s office to activate the device.  A software program develops a specific “prescription” or setting based on hearing assessments at this visit.  The patient also learns how to recharge the battery and use a remote control to adjust volume and settings.   

“With regular hearing aids, patients usually have to visit their doctors quite regularly,” Dr. Atkins said. “Over time, the mold begins to not fit right or it gets wax in it and needs to be repaired.  With this hearing device, those factors are eliminated.  As long as there are not any complications, which we would not expect, the device becomes almost maintenance-free.”

Wicks had her surgery in November to implant the hearing device and had the device activated last week.  Prior to this surgery, Wicks experienced a big problem at work:  she had to remove her hearing aids to listen to her stethoscope.  Now that everything is underneath her skin, though, that problem is gone!