With the help of various types of implants, many deaf people today can regain at least parts of their hearing. It is possible to replace damaged hair cells in the cochlea with an electronic receptor. Researchers at Uppsala University and University Hospital in Uppsala are the only ones in the Nordic countries to use the method of placing a tiny electronic plate directly in the brainstem.

Hearing is the only sense that can be restored artificially.

- It’s a great stride for medicine to be able to restore a sense, says Helge Rask-Andersen, chief physician at Uppsala University Hospital and professor of experimental otology at the Department of Surgical Sciences.

The most advanced implant is a so-called brainstem implant, which is primarily used for patients who once had good hearing, but had an auditory nerve damaged, for example in connection with tumors on the auditory nerves.

- Thanks to close collaboration between neuro and ear surgeons at University Hospital, we can simultaneously remove the tumor and place the implant directly on the auditory core in the brainstem, says Helge Rask-Andersen, who was the first in Europe to perform a brainstem implant.

- One of our patients has regained so much of her hearing that she can talk on the phone, something no one had expected, he says.

A couple of patients undergo such an operation each year. Considerably more common is the cochlea implant, which helps patients whose deafness is a result of a withering of the hair cells in the cochlea. This damage can either be congenital or acquired later in life. Read more