Cochlear Implants Help With Hippel-Lindau

U.S. researchers say a cochlear implant can restore hearing in a patient with von Hippel-Lindau disease, which can produce non-malignant tumors in ears.

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health say the advance was possible because their years of research into the disease showed that these tumors do not affect the cochlear nerve necessary to receive sound in the brain.

The findings, published as a case report in the journal Otology & Neurology, found that patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease with hearing loss may be now be candidates for a cochlear implant.

Based on our understanding of how these tumors affect the inner ear, we felt that a cochlear implant could work, and it did, the study’s lead author, Dr. H. Jeffrey Kim said in a statement.

Two years after the surgery, the implant has significantly improved the quality of life of the patient, according to Kim.