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EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT OF BIONICS VESTIBULAR IMPLANT FOR BILATERAL VESTIBULAR DYSFUNCTION

Descripción del proyecto

Un novedoso implante vestibular biónico para los pacientes con vértigo

La prevalencia del vértigo de origen vestibular en personas mayores es elevada, lo cual compromete sus actividades cotidianas y genera riesgo de caídas y de discapacidad funcional permanente. Se estima que 100 millones de personas de todo el mundo podrían beneficiarse de un implante vestibular que alivie esta afección. En el proyecto BionicVEST, financiado con fondos europeos, se pretende establecer el primer sistema que reproduzca las aceleraciones lineales del órgano otolito mediante estimulación eléctrica. Algunos de sus objetivos son estudiar las vías vestibulares a través de la estimulación eléctrica del sáculo y el utrículo, crear un sistema de telemetría para evaluar el potencial de acción evocado del nervio vestibular, así como diseñar, fabricar y probar la primera prótesis vestibular para demostrar la seguridad del implante.

Objetivo

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.

Convocatoria de propuestas

H2020-FETOPEN-2016-2017

Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoria

Convocatoria de subcontratación

H2020-FETOPEN-1-2016-2017

Régimen de financiación

RIA - Research and Innovation action

Coordinador

SERVICIO CANARIO DE LA SALUD
Aportación neta de la UEn
€ 728 544,74
Dirección
PÉREZ DE ROZAS, 5, 4 PLANTA
38006 Santa Cruz De Tenerife
España

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Región
Canarias Canarias Tenerife
Tipo de actividad
Research Organisations
Enlaces
Coste total
€ 728 544,74

Participantes (6)