COCHLEAR implants designed to restore hearing to deaf patients cannot always be fitted because of unexpected obstructions in the inner ear. But a new endoscope, made of a single optical fibre just half a millimetre wide, could one day let doctors see these obstructions and guide the implant around them. It could also be used to peer inside other narrow structures such as blood vessels.
Cochlear implants convert sound into electrical signals, which are used to stimulate the auditory nerve fibres in the cochlea of the inner ear. To fit the implant, an array of electrodes is fed down the…
