An auditory ossicles prosthesis has a head plate for abutment against an eardrum, and a shaft arranged on said head plate for bridging a tympanic cavity from the eardrum up to a stirrup or a stirrup footplate, and the head plate has a throughgoing passage through which the shaft can be pushed more or less so as to be cut at an opposite side of the head plate to a desired length, and then the passage is narrowed to fix the shaft in its final position.
An arrangement for coupling at least partially a hearing device implantable in a middle ear or a passive auditory ossicles prosthesis on an ascending bracket of a human ossicle chain, the arrangement has a body, and a clip provided on the body and formed so as to automatically mount on an ascending bracket.
The present invention provides a device to restore hearing to individuals who have a discontinuity in the middle ear sound conductive mechanism. The device in accordance with the present invention addresses a specific problem arising often in middle ear surgery. Currently available middle ear prostheses are inadequate to remedy the specific problem of a lateral relationship of the stapes capitulum to the malleus, thereby necessitating a cartilage graft resulting in poor sound conductive properties. The present invention provides a middle ear prosthesis that solves the problems associated with the lateral relationship of the stapes capitulum to the malleus.
An ossicle prosthesis (10) includes a first securing element (11) and a second securing element (12), the second securing element connected to a member of the ossicle chain. The ossicle chain ends at the first securing element in a ball joint, which includes two struts (13, 13') solidly connected to the first securing element (11). The two struts enclose a gaplike space, in which a ball (14) is pivotably supported in two recesses (15), the ball (14) being part of an elongated shaft (16) that connects the first and second securing elements and includes many balls (14, 14', 14'') adjacent to one another. The elongated shaft is displaceable through the gaplike space between the two struts and through a perforation (17) in the first securing element, where one of the balls snaps between the respective recesses. The gaplike space can be made narrower between the two struts (13, 13') of the ball joint for fixation of the shaft (16) after the desired length has been adjusted.
