According to foreign media New Atlas, tympanic membrane perforation can cause pain and hearing loss, and it is troublesome to repair.PhonoGraft developed by Harvard University scientists is a3D printingThe implant can repair damage by “encouraging” natural cell regeneration, and it has now entered commercial production.
The tympanic membrane, also known as the eardrum, is a thin circular tissue that vibrates in response to sound waves and converts it into electrical signals that the brain can interpret. However, if it is punctured by foreign objects such as cotton swabs or injured by extremely loud noises, it will not be able to do the job well. Worse, if this barrier is damaged, viruses and bacteria can enter the inner ear and cause serious infections.
Currently, the best treatment is the so-called tympanoplasty, which involves the use of a transplant of the patient’s own tissue for repair. But the end result is not as sound as a healthy tympanic membrane. The operation requires an incision behind the ear, and it often fails and requires another operation.
PhonoGraft is designed to solve these problems.The implant imitates the complex shape of the natural tympanic membrane. Its pattern is a “spoke” like a bicycle wheel, and it is made of a specially developed synthetic polymer-based3D printingMade of ink. The implant itself can not only restore hearing, but also provide a scaffold for the regeneration of the recipient’s own cells. The tests performed on chinchillas proved to be promising because the anatomy and hearing range of the chinchillas’ ears are similar to those of humans.
“Three months after implanting our optimized grafts into the ears of chinchillas, we ushered in the real’Eureka moment’,” said Aaron Remenschneider, a researcher on the project. “Hearing tests showed that sound conduction was completely restored, which has always been a major obstacle. Then, we used an endoscope to look at the ear canal for the first time. What we saw was just a little bit of our graft being replaced by new tissue- -A beautiful reconstructed tympanic membrane with a radial circular pattern.”
As an added benefit, PhonoGraft can be inserted through the ear canal, making this procedure less invasive.
In order to bring the device to the market, the Wyss Institute at Harvard University launched a start-up company called Beacon Bio, which was recently acquired by Desktop Health-obviously, this step allowed it to enter the market. The team is now working to obtain permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to bring PhonoGraft to human patients. Other similar implants are also under development, such as ClearDrum in Australia.
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