Profound deafness treated by the Ineraid multichannel intracochlear implant

Abstract

AbstarctTwelve deaf adults and two deaf children were treated with the Ineraid (formerly Symbion) four channel intracochlear implant between September 1989 and October 1991 at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. All were post-lingually totally deaf and had found themselves beyond the reach of hearing aids. The effect of the implant upon the patients ability to lip-read was tested with the speech tracking test, BKB sentences (comparable to CID sentences) and Boothroyd word lists (comparable to NU6 word lists). All patients showed an improvement in their ability to understand speech with the help of the implant. Discrimination of speech without lip-reading was tested with Boothroyd word lists and BKB sentences, eight patients (57 per cent) demonstrated some ‘open set’ speech discrimination. The acceptability of the carbon percutaneous pedestal is discussed from the patient's, audiologist's and surgeon's points of view.

Biomaterials in cochlear implants

“…The literature contains descriptions of how, in exceptional cases, the existing electrode array is held in place within the cochlea by encircling it with a “wall” of scar tissue or bone [59]. The difficulty in such instances is that further attempts to extract the array can only partially remove it, with a residual portion remaining within the cochlea [60]. This calls for an intraoperative decision as to whether only one electrode – albeit incomplete and basally positioned – can be inserted or whether a double array can be introduced into the cochlea by means of two cochleostomies.…”

Biomaterialien bei Cochlea-Implantaten

“…knöcherne Ummauerung des alten Elektrodenträgers beschrieben[72]. Die Schwierigkeit in diesen Fällen besteht darin, dass bei weiteren Extraktionsversuchen der Elektrodenträger nur teilweise entfernt werden kann und ein Rest der Elektrode in der Cochlea verbleibt[73]. Hier muss dann intraoperativ entschieden werden, ob lediglich eine inkomplett, basal platzierte Elektrode bzw.…”