Description du projet
Nouvel implant vestibulaire bionique pour les patients souffrant de vertiges
Il existe une forte prévalence de vertiges d’origine vestibulaire chez les personnes âgées, ce qui compromet les activités courantes et engendre des risques de chutes et d’incapacité fonctionnelle permanente. On estime que 100 millions de personnes dans le monde pourraient bénéficier d’un implant vestibulaire qui atténuerait cette affection. Le projet BionicVEST, financé par l’UE, vise à développer le premier système permettant de reproduire des accélérations linéaires dans l’organe otolithique par stimulation électrique. Ses objectifs comprennent une étude des voies vestibulaires par stimulation électrique du saccule-utricule, le développement d’un système de télémétrie pour évaluer le potentiel d’action évoqué du nerf vestibulaire, ainsi que la conception, la fabrication et les essais de la première prothèse vestibulaire pour démontrer la sécurité de l’implant.
Objectif
Vertigo of vestibular origin has a global prevalence of 38% in the elderly and deserves special attention because
of the high risk of falls and permanent functional disability, and even death. This seriously handicaps their lives,
disabling them of doing routine daily activities, such as driving and even walking. The associated total costs are
around 60.000 million euros in Europe. It is estimated that at least 100 million people worldwide could benefit
from a vestibular implant as an effective solution to this disease. Restoring the function of the vestibular
labyrinths was not possible until now. Current devices, under research, detect change in angular velocity of the
cephalic movements through gyroscopes and use this information to stimulate the semicircular canals. However,
they do not code vertical and horizontal accelerations, used to sense gravitational forces, keep a stand up position
and restore the sense of self-position. Linear accelerations are detected by a different set of structures which are a
more complex and harder to access: the saccule and utricle. This project will develop the first system to
electrically reproduce linear accelerations in the otolith organ by stimulating their neural ends. The project will
have three phases: Device design, fabrication and clinical trial. Therefore, the objectives will be: 1) to study, for
the first time, vestibular pathways through electrical saccule-utricle stimulation; 2) to develop a vestibular
response telemetry system to analyse the evoked action potential of vestibular nerve; 3) to design, manufacture
and test the first vestibular prosthesis that restores the sense of linear accelerations. The main objectives are to
demonstrate the safety of a vestibular implant for human, to determine its efficacy in restoring vestibular function
by measuring the improvement in objective and to objectify the improvement in Quality of Life of patients.
Champ scientifique
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RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinateur
38006 Santa Cruz De Tenerife
Espagne