[Active electronic hearing implants for middle and inner ear hearing loss--a new era in ear surgery. III: prospects for inner ear hearing loss].

The perspectives for active hearing implants lie in the treatment of patients with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). The majority of patients with SNHL suffer from a cochlea amplifier (CA) failure which is discernible by a positive recruitment and loss of otoacoustic emissions (OAE). Therefore, the electronic implant is expected to partially replace functions of the CA. Thus, the implant is thought to function as a CAI (cochlea amplifier implant). An approved implant for routine use is not yet available. Clinical studies have thus far only used the high energy consuming (HEC), narrow-band, electromagnetic floating-mass transducer, as well as the Maniglia-HEC implant. The high energie consuming, yet broadband Canadian Fredrickson implant is soon to be used in humans. Of the piezoelectrical implants, a German CAI (Tübingen implant) at present consisting of a piezoelectrical transducer and a microphone has thus far been acutely implanted in first patient. It is a low energy consuming (LEC), broad-band implantable system for patients with sensorineural hearing loss. Routine surgical treatment of patients with sensorineural hearing loss with a CAI will only be achieved if complete implants (with transducer, microphones, batteries, and control unit) are made available. They combine distinct acoustic superiority with invisibility (end of stigmatization), an open ear canal, and hopefully, the end of feedback whistling. Among the implants mentioned, the German CAI is the only LEC implant. Its energy requirements are so low that with today's technologie implantable batteries (e.g., in pacemakers), the additional implantation of an energy carrier seems feasible. Since the implantable microphone is already available in the German system, the only essential part missing for a totally implantable CAI is the implantable control unit.