A team of scientists and surgeons has for the first time validated a safe surgical access to the central core of the human cochlea, a hollow, spiral-shaped bone found in the inner ear which plays a key role in the sense of hearing.

An international team of researchers from Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Foundation Trust in London, and the universities of Sheffield, Uppsala (Sweden), Nottingham, and Western University in Canada, has proven and confirmed a secure clinical pathway to the cochlea in the inner ear, which will enable the application of a range of regenerative therapies to restore hearing.

The human cochlea lies in the base of the skull, encased by the hardest bone in the human body. This has hampered the progress of discovering new treatments for hearing loss, a release by the University of Sheffield said on Wednesday.