新型助听器：让声音更逼真

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Raves (Yes, It’s True) for New Hearing Aid

By TARA PARKER-POPE
Published: April 15, 2008

Few products are hated as much as hearing aids.

The devices can squeal with feedback and overamplify background noises like the click of a turn signal or whir of a ceiling fan. They must be removed for showering or sleeping, and their batteries die frequently. Many users, out of exasperation, decide they’d rather live with hearing loss.

But now scientists have come up with a different kind of hearing aid. While the device, called the Lyric, is being used in only 500 patients, it appears to have overcome many of the problems associated with traditional hearing aids — without the expense and uncertainty of surgery and anesthesia.

The Lyric, made by InSound Medical of Newark, Calif., is hidden deep inside the ear canal, just four millimeters (about one-sixth of an inch) from the ear drum. While doctors for years have been implanting hearing devices in the middle ear, the Lyric is not an implant: it can be removed with a small magnet. It is worn 24 hours a day, and its batteries last one to four months.

Typically, anything that clogs the ear canal would trap moisture and pose an infection risk, but the Lyric is surrounded by a spongy material that allows moisture to escape. Because it sits so close to the ear drum, doctors say that it works more efficiently and that sounds are more natural because they don’t have to be amplified as much.

When the Lyric’s battery dies, the entire device is replaced. Patients do not pay for a new device every time; instead, they pay an annual subscription fee of $2,900 to $3,600 for both ears (less if the hearing loss is in only one ear). Insurance plans typically do not cover the cost of the Lyric, or any other hearing device.

A magnet is used to control the volume, turn it on and off and remove it when the battery runs out. It takes only a few minutes for a doctor to insert a replacement device.

The Lyric does not work for everyone. In particular, some ear canals are too narrow to accommodate it, and the company estimates that it is not suitable for up to half of potential patients. A planned newer version should work for about 85 percent of patients, it says.

Still, it is already getting an enthusiastic reception from patients and from hearing specialists not connected with the company. “There are a certain number of patients who just can’t get over having something in their ear, just as there are a certain number of patients who can’t wear contact lenses,” said Dr. Chester F. Griffiths, chairman of the department of surgery at the Santa Monica U.C.L.A. Medical Center. “But that’s the minority. The patients that have them love them.”

Dr. Griffiths says he has no financial ties to the Lyric, nor does he receive a commission for referring patients.

One patient who swears by the device is Mike Waufle, the 53-year-old defensive line coach for the New York Giants. After a stint in the Marines and regular exposure to the sounds of gunfire, Mr. Waufle suffered hearing loss that grew worse and worse as he aged.

On the football field, he just turned up the volume on his headset. But the locker room was a different story. Some voices were impossible to hear (including that of his last boss, Jon Gruden, the former Oakland Raiders head coach). Players learned they needed to face him when they spoke to him. Using a traditional hearing aid, he found it difficult to control his own voice.

“I teach a lot in a classroom as a coach, but when I would wear a hearing aid my voice pattern wasn’t very good,” he said. “It was all over the place. I just took it out most of the time. I missed an awful lot.”

As it happened, a team doctor was one of a handful of physicians test-marketing the Lyric, which has been available for about 16 months. Mr. Waufle tried it, and he says it has changed his life.

“My voice pattern is so natural, and I hear so much better,” he said. “Obviously, it’s easier to carry on normal conversations without having to always say, ‘Huh? What did you say?’ And it helps just enjoying life over all and being able to hear the simple things like birds and other sounds you take for granted.”

Mr. Waufle says he has no financial ties to the company and receives no benefit for talking about his experience with the device. (The company says none of the people featured in testimonials on its Web site, {www.lyrichearing.com,} receive any form of compensation for their endorsements.)

Right now, the Lyric is offered only through a dozen clinics in California, Florida and New Jersey, but it should be available at about 100 sites by the end of the year. Some patients who don’t live near a clinic simply fly or drive to a site four or five times a year. InSound is a privately held firm, although the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is a major investor.

Dr. Robert A. Schindler, a co-founder of InSound and chairman emeritus of the department of otolaryngology at the University of California, San Francisco, says he has had hearing loss most of his life and has worn a Lyric since 2005. He says he remembers listening to an orchestra and hearing the light ping of the triangle.

“I realized I hadn’t heard it before,” he said. “That was a very exciting moment for me.”

戴助听器的患者都知道，助听器就是一个声音增强器，在让患者听到外界声音的同时，也会过度放大一些背景噪声，配戴者不得不忍受它经常发出的尖叫声。此外，配戴者洗澡或睡觉的时候必须将其摘掉，电池也经常没电。许多患者出于愤怒，决定宁可忍受无声的世界，也不要戴着它。

但现在，科学家们已经发明出一种新型助听器。这种叫作Lyric的助听器目前仅有500名患者使用，它克服了传统助听器的许多问题，也无需手术和麻醉。 由纽瓦克InSound 医疗公司生产的助听器Lyric，置于耳道深处，距鼓膜仅4毫米（约1/6英寸） 。多年来医生们都是在中耳植入听觉装置，而Lyric不需要植入：一小块磁铁就能将其取走。它可以每天24小时配戴，电池持续一至四个月。

Lyric的四周包有海绵材料，水分容易散发，因而避免了感染风险。因为它非常贴近鼓膜，所以工作效率非常高，声音没有被过度放大，听起来更自然。用一块磁铁就可以控制Lyric的音量和开关，当Lyric的电池耗竭时，医生只花几分钟时间，就可以更换一个装置。 患者不必每次都为一个新装置付钱，他们只要每年预缴2900～3600美元就可以享受一年的服务。保险公司通常不会支付Lyric或其他任何助听器的费用。

然而，Lyric并不适用于每一个人。特别是那些耳道非常狭窄的患者，Lyric无法进入耳道。InSound 公司估计，大约有半数潜在患者不适合装入该设备。公司设计的新版本将适用于约85 ％的病人。

圣莫尼卡加州大学洛杉矶分校医疗中心外科主任Chester F. Griffiths博士说，Lyric已经得到了一些患者及听力专家的喜爱和接受。Mike Waufle是一名53岁的足球教练，他发现使用传统助听器，很难控制自己的声音。 自从换用Lyric后，他感觉自己可以轻松地和其他人进行正常交谈，而不必总是说：” 唉，你说什么？“

Robert A. Schindler博士，Insound的共同创办人，旧金山加州大学耳鼻咽喉科名誉退休主任，他已经听力丧失多年，从2005年起开始配戴Lyric。他清楚地记得聆听管弦乐和轻音乐的那种感觉，“我意识到我以前从没有听到过这样美妙的声音，那一刻对我来说简直就是激动人心。\"

目前，Lyric仅在加利福尼亚州、佛罗里达州和新泽西州的十二个诊所有售，不住在诊所附近的病人一年要驾车或乘坐飞机往返四五次。 到今年年底Lyric将在大约100个诊所中投放。

Insound是一家私人控股公司，尽管制药巨头强生公司是一个主要的投资者。