Cochlear Implant

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Who uses a cochlear implant

Cochlear implants allow deaf people to receive and process sounds and speech. To a certain degree, they are devices that allow deaf people to "hear". However, it is important to understand that these devices do not re-establish normal hearing -- they are tools that allow for sound and speech input to be processed and transmitted to the brain.

The criteria used to select appropriate candidates for cochlear implants are changing over time -- as both the technology changes, and our understanding of the auditory (hearing) pathways in our brain improves.

Both children or adults can be candidates for cochlear implantation. They can be born deaf, or may have become deaf after learning to speak. Children as young as 1 to 1.5 years old are now becoming candidates for this surgery. Although adult and pediatric criteria are slightly different, they are based upon several similar guidelines:

1. The patient should be completely or very-near completely deaf in both ears, and received almost no improvement after trying hearing aids. Anyone who has adequate hearing with hearing aids is not a good candidate for cochlear implants.
2. The patient needs to be highly motivated, because after the cochlear implant is placed, there is a significant amount of learning that needs to occur in order to make proper use of the device.
3. The patient needs to have reasonable expectations for what will occur after surgery. The device does not restore or create "normal" hearing.
4. Children need to be enrolled in programs that help them learn sound-processing skills.
5. In order to determine if a patient is a surgical candidate, the patient must have a medical evaluation by an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat doctor). This evaluation may include a CT scan or an MRI scan to evaluate the structures of the brain, and the middle and inner ear.
6. Patients (especially children) may need psychological evaluation to determine if they are a candidate for surgery.