Patient Experience of Undergoing MRI With a New Active Transcutaneous Bone-Anchored Hearing Implant

Hearing implants may be a concern if a patient needs to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Despite the development of MRI conditional implants, there are still reports of complications and of patients for whom the MRI needs to be aborted prematurely due to having an implant. The Sentio Ti implant is a new 1.5 T conditional transcutaneous bone-anchored hearing implant. Owing to the limited clinical experience with head MRI procedures in recipients of this recently introduced implant, the present investigation sought to rigorously characterize patient-reported experiences during MRI and to systematically assess the incidence and nature of implant-related complications and adverse events.

Fifteen implanted patients underwent a 1.5 T head MRI scan according to the manufacturer's instructions and afterwards completed a questionnaire about their experience. Furthermore, the clinicians were asked to rate their experience and report complications or need for mitigating actions, such as head bandaging or local anesthesia. Adverse events were monitored in a 2-week follow-up period.

In 15/15 cases, the MRI scan was completed without complications or need for mitigating actions. During the immediate follow-up period, one adverse event possibly related to the procedure was noted. Patients reported overall good experiences, with low levels of discomfort. Median pressure and pain at the implant site were 3 and 1, respectively, assessed on a numerical rating scale of 0-10.

Patients with the investigated implant can safely undergo a 1.5 T MRI scan according to the manufacturer's instructions.