Objective To report use of the Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) in patients with congenital deformation of the middle and outer ears and investigate its utility in this patient population.Method Four patients with congenital...Objective To report use of the Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) in patients with congenital deformation of the middle and outer ears and investigate its utility in this patient population.Method Four patients with congenital deformation of middle and outer ears underwent VSB implantation. All were male (aged 3-18 years,average 13.5 years) and operated on the left side.Malformation was bilateral in 3 patients and unilateral in 1 patient. Surgical techniques were modified to accommodate each patient’s unique conditions and needs.The implant site was approached via the facial recess in 3 patients and through a retro-facial nerve route in 1 patient. The VSB implant was connected to either the stapes (2 cases) or the round window (2 cases).Pure tone and speech audiometry results and daily communication capabilities before and after VSB activation were compared.Results The operations were successful in all patients, with no complications. The patient communication level improved significantly after VSB activation. Average air conduction pure tone threshold or conditioned reflex audiometry threshold improved by 35 dB in the 0.25-4 kHz range,from 69 dB HL before VSB activation to 34 dB HL after.The sentence recognition rate in quiet at 65 dB SPL went up to 86% from 0% without VSB for patients with bilateral deformation and remained at 100% for the patient with unilateral deformity. However, for the latter patient, the rate improved to 20% from 0% without VSB in noise (-8 dB SNR).Conclusion VSB is an excellent solution for improving hearing in patients with congenital deformation of middle and outer ears.Operation can be completed and good results can be achieved even in patients with unique conditions and needs.展开更多
The structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of VSb in zincblende, and NiAs phases, VSb （001） film surfaces and its interfaces with GaSh （001） have been investigated within the framework of the density func...The structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of VSb in zincblende, and NiAs phases, VSb （001） film surfaces and its interfaces with GaSh （001） have been investigated within the framework of the density functional theory using the FPLAPW＋lo approach. The NiAs structure is more stable than the ZB phase, ZB VSb is found to a half-metallic ferromagnetic. The V-terminated surfaces retain the half-metallic character, while the half-metallicity is destroyed for Sb-terminated surfaces due to surface states, which originate from p electrons. The phase diagram obtained through the ab-initio atomistic thermodynamics shows that the formation energy of ZB VSb is about 0.1 Ryd. The half-metallicity character is also preserved at VSb/GaSb （001） interface. The conduction band minimum （CBM） of VSb in the minority spin case lies about 0.47 eV above that of GaSb, suggesting that the majority spin can be injected into GaSb without being flipped to the conduction bands of the minority spin.展开更多
文摘Objective To report use of the Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) in patients with congenital deformation of the middle and outer ears and investigate its utility in this patient population.Method Four patients with congenital deformation of middle and outer ears underwent VSB implantation. All were male (aged 3-18 years,average 13.5 years) and operated on the left side.Malformation was bilateral in 3 patients and unilateral in 1 patient. Surgical techniques were modified to accommodate each patient’s unique conditions and needs.The implant site was approached via the facial recess in 3 patients and through a retro-facial nerve route in 1 patient. The VSB implant was connected to either the stapes (2 cases) or the round window (2 cases).Pure tone and speech audiometry results and daily communication capabilities before and after VSB activation were compared.Results The operations were successful in all patients, with no complications. The patient communication level improved significantly after VSB activation. Average air conduction pure tone threshold or conditioned reflex audiometry threshold improved by 35 dB in the 0.25-4 kHz range,from 69 dB HL before VSB activation to 34 dB HL after.The sentence recognition rate in quiet at 65 dB SPL went up to 86% from 0% without VSB for patients with bilateral deformation and remained at 100% for the patient with unilateral deformity. However, for the latter patient, the rate improved to 20% from 0% without VSB in noise (-8 dB SNR).Conclusion VSB is an excellent solution for improving hearing in patients with congenital deformation of middle and outer ears.Operation can be completed and good results can be achieved even in patients with unique conditions and needs.
文摘The structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of VSb in zincblende, and NiAs phases, VSb （001） film surfaces and its interfaces with GaSh （001） have been investigated within the framework of the density functional theory using the FPLAPW＋lo approach. The NiAs structure is more stable than the ZB phase, ZB VSb is found to a half-metallic ferromagnetic. The V-terminated surfaces retain the half-metallic character, while the half-metallicity is destroyed for Sb-terminated surfaces due to surface states, which originate from p electrons. The phase diagram obtained through the ab-initio atomistic thermodynamics shows that the formation energy of ZB VSb is about 0.1 Ryd. The half-metallicity character is also preserved at VSb/GaSb （001） interface. The conduction band minimum （CBM） of VSb in the minority spin case lies about 0.47 eV above that of GaSb, suggesting that the majority spin can be injected into GaSb without being flipped to the conduction bands of the minority spin.
