Stimulation Probe Identifies and Protects Cranial Nerves

An infrared neural stimulation (INS) device that identifies nerves could help people with hearing injuries and aid surgeons in ear, nose, and throat (ENT) procedures.

An award granted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA) is intended to help fund the development of a handheld laser-based nerve stimulator for use by ENT specialists to identify cranial nerves during surgery. The planned device will use INS, a versatile technology that is also poised to diagnose and treat those suffering neurological trauma, including the growing population of young, brain-injured U.S. veterans returning from combat. The design goal is a compact probe that gives surgeons precise, real-time feedback on cranial nerve function during the surgical procedure. By precisely locating critical nerves, the risk of inadvertent damage and subsequent functional loss could be significantly reduced. INS promises improved spatial resolution and scanning ability, allowing superior tumor resection and surgical outcomes. Potential uses include identifying the facial nerves during head and neck surgery, substantially lowering the risk of facial paralysis, which can occur in extreme cases. The INS device will be developed by Aculight (Bothell, WA, USA), under the U.S. federal small business innovation research (SBIR) program.

"Aculight's INS technology is particularly important now because of the need for cutting-edge treatments for the hearing impaired and injured, such as many of the men and women returning from combat in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters,” said Mark Bendett, Aculight director of medical products. "In these environments our veterans have been exposed to conditions such as IED [improvised explosive device] blasts, which cause brain injuries, hearing loss, limb amputation, and other deficits that could benefit from the technology we are developing.”

Related Links:
U.S. National Institutes of Health
Aculight