Robot-Assisted Cochlear Implant Surgery

Since the inception of cochlear implantation, there has already been a lot of research into improving its technological aspects, whereas the surgical placement has enjoyed a golden standard for a long time. Since the advent of robotic surgery, there has now also been the development of robot-assisted cochlear implant surgery. This chapter will discuss the opportunities and challenges that robotic-assisted and image-guided cochlear implantation faces. The required accuracy and sensitivity to not harm inner ear structures during electrode insertion is already at the limits of human dexterity. With electrode arrays becoming smaller in the future, the need for robotic accuracy and reliability will become necessary. Robotic-assisted cochlear implantation is seen as a minimally invasive way of doing cochlear implantation surgery with the potential of being the golden standard in the future. An atraumatic intracochlear electrode array placement ensures that the anatomy and physiology of the inner ear structures are preserved as much as possible, thus reducing the risk of losing the rest of the natural hearing levels of the patient. This could lead to a broadening of the indication, opening the door for patients that only experience a loss at the higher frequencies. It is a given fact that robotising surgical procedures will standardise surgical outcomes.