Tinnitus, Deafness and Ear Problems Support Group
This group is for those coping with Tinnitus (ringing ears or ear noise), hearing loss, and all ear issues. Join to find support and get advice from others.
I am a retired speech pathologist and in a recent issue of my professional magazine there was an article titled" Implant a cure for Tinnitus?" It tells about the Serenity implant device. Have any of you heard of it? It is a permanent implant that stimulates the vagus nerve by playing tones in specific frequencies. It was developed at the University of Texas in Dallas by Michael Kilgard and Robert Rennaker and tested successfully on rats. They also completed a clinical trial in Belgium and are scheduled for studies in Europe and the US in 2013. The vagus nerve wanders around the body but does come in contact with the ears. Kilgard said "Stimulation of the vagus nerve sends a signal to the brain that tells neurons to pay attention because something interesting is happening." He claimed that in the Belgian study "many patients showed dramatic and long-lasting improvements in the tinnitus after vagus nerve stimulation was paired with tones". The manufacturing company is MicroTransponder, Inc.
This may be something worth watching! I will post more if there are follow up articles in my professional journal.
This may be something worth watching! I will post more if there are follow up articles in my professional journal.
.I talked to the CFO of the comapny back then.
They received a couple of million dollars form investors money.
It is a very promising therapy.
"MicroTransponder Inc. has raised $3.05 million to begin clinical trials of a neurostimulation medical device that aims to help people who have a constant ringing in their ears, along with stroke patients and those with chronic pain.
The investment in the Dallas company was led by Green Park & Golf Ventures, a North Texas health care investment concern, and included a number of wealthy individuals, including several practicing physicians.
The $3.05 million included a matching warrant provision allowing investors to put another $4.32 million into MicroTransponder at a future point should they elect to do so, according to Jordan Curnes, MicroTransponders president.
Later this year, a clinical trial of MicroTransponders device is slated to begin. That trial, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, will examine MicroTransponders therapy for the treatment of Tinnitus, or a constant ringing in the ears."
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/2013/03/microtransponder-raising-73m.html
Greetings,
The MicroTransponder team has continued to work diligently on our neurostimulation therapy for treating tinnitus. We are pleased to announce that we will be starting a 30-patient U.S. clinical trial at multiple sites later in 2013. We do not have an exact date for the beginning of enrollment, since we are still awaiting regulatory approval. We will send another email once we have approval to begin enrollment that will provide the appropriate trial site contact information for all patients that are interested in participating in this trial. At that time, we will also post the information on our website (www.microtransponder.com).
I had contact with them several years ago.
The money they have been raising, has been very impressive.
"VNS paired with tones excluding the tinnitus-matched frequency is safe and feasible. It seems to exert a beneficial effect in nonmedication-taking patients, both with regard to the perceived sound and the distress. Further studies are therefore mandated."
The word safe is very important as that leads to further tests and ultimately government approval for treating tinnitus. 4 out of 10 patients experienced improvement which lasted more than 2 months after there treatment. 5 didn't experience any improvement. Those 5 were also taking medicines which were believed to be directly interfering with the treatment. From what I read elsewhere 1 patient experienced a minor improvement. The 4 that received the most benefit had a 29 decibel drop in tinnitus noise. For 3 of them that was a 44% drop. The patients all received received 2 hours of daily treatment for 20 days.
I believe this is very good progress. It's not a cure but it's the best results I've ever seen in a real clinical trial. I would bet there have been less than 50 test subjects so far. Imagine what they'll know after the next 100 or 1,000 patient trials.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ner.12127/abstract