Background: Vibrant SoundBridge® (VSB), a semi-implantable middle ear device, is one of the treatment options
for patients with mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss or mixed hearing loss. Herein, we report delayed
device failure after VSB surgery in two patients.
Case presentation: In both cases, a revision surgery was performed for the removal of the device; dissociation of
the floating mass transducer (FMT) and coupler was noticed in one patient, and dissociation of the FMT-coupler
complex from the short process of the incus in the other. In Case 1, the vibration-like sounds disappeared after
the surgery. In Case 2, wearing bilateral hearing aids improved hearing after removal surgery, but complaints
regarding speech discrimination persisted. Both cases show the importance of not loosening the connectivity
between the FMT, coupler, and short process of the incus during VSB surgery.
Conclusions: To our knowledge, there has been no report of dissociation from the short process of the incus or the
dissociation between an FMT and the coupler.

Device failure caused by the dissociation of floating mass transducer in Vibrant SoundBridge®

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm, that on behalf of the Cochlear Implant centers of the Radboud UMC in Nijmegen and Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam to invite you to attend the 16th European Symposium on Pediatric Cochlear Implantation to Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2023.

Yours sincerely, on behalf of the CI Centers at Radboud UMC and Erasmus MC,