Cochlear Implant History

     A cochlear implant is an electronic device that restores hearing for people anywhere from hard of hearing to the profoundly deaf. The cochlear implant is surgically implanted under the skin behind the ear. The surgeon puts the electrode array inside the inner ear and than inside the cochlea. The implant works by a device outside the ear, which rests on the skin behind the ear. It is held upright by a magnet and is also connected by a lead to a sound professor.

A Cochlear Implant is an electronic device that partially restores hearing in people who have severe hearing loss due to damage of the inner ear and who receive limited benefit from hearing aids (http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/connect/au/home/understand/hearing-and-hl/hl-treatments/cochlear-implant). In some cases there are patients whose hearing did not adjust correctly, having a risk of developing a virus, complications after the surgery, the benefits of sign language without a cochlear implant and lastly children or adults with cochlear implants may not even develop a good speech. There are many positive and negative articles I have read on cochlear implants. As a parent you are not only putting your child at risk, you are also withdrawing them from the deaf community, the one they were naturally born into. I do not support cochlear implants, children should not be implanted until they are grown to the point where they can make their own choice

Most doctors recommend that children with cochlear implant only use spoken language as a method of communication so they can maximize the benefits from the cochlear implant. However, the popular method of communication for children with cochlear implants is total communication which is the integration of oral communication and ASL. Although Heather Artinian was fluent in ASL before she received her cochlear implant, she was able to communicate with hearing and deaf people through both ASL and spoken language after years of intensive speech therapy (Aronson, Sound and Fury: Six Years Later). When cochlear implant users take it off, they cannot hear any sounds so they are technically still deaf. Even though they are able to hear sounds, cochlear implant recipients will not be able to identify themselves as hearing individuals. When they bridge the gap between the deaf and hearing world, they can still be a part of both cultures without defining themselves as a part of only one culture (TedX: The Heather World). Therefore, the cochlear implant can be a great device for deaf people who want to stay in the Deaf community but still be able to take advantage of additional opportunities in the hearing

Cochlear implants consists of three external parts: a microphone, a speech processor, and a transmitter. The internal parts include: a receiver and stimulator and an array of up to 22 electrodes, depending on how much amplification is needed. Cochlear implants work by bypassing all the damaged parts of the ear to directly stimulate the tiny hair cells on the cochlea that direct sound frequencies to the auditory nerve. (ASHA 2013)

Or even a deaf person that is able to hear voices, pick out music notes with hearing aids. They usually will recommend cochlear implants for the profoundly death. However from the HLAA (Hearing Loss Association of America) discussed that “About one-fourth of the overall range of outcome can be explained based on the length of deafness and about one-sixth of depends on the word understanding capabilities prior to implantation. Other patient, ear and device variables demonstrated no significant correlations with the benefit achieved with respect to speech recognition.” Meaning cochlear implants are still an unperfected machinery to help all deaf humans.

There are many things that people in the hearing world take for granted every day, such as verbal communication, using a telephone or something as simple as the feeling you get when your favorite song comes on the radio. To a person that has been completely immersed in the deaf community, it may be easy to view the sense of sound as unnecessary. As a member of the haring community it would seem nearly impossible to live a day without sound. Cochlear implants are devices that help a person who is deaf gain hearing to some degree, and in some cases nearly full hearing. This new technology has become very controversial throughout both the hearing, and the deaf world.

Deafness or hard of hearing, is defined by the medical society as a disability, but those who are diagnosed with the disability think otherwise. They think of themselves as a community, embrace it as an identity, or a culture with their own language, sign language, and they believe their community is being threaten. They label themselves as a minority endangered of being wiped out because of one leading cause, cochlear implants. Those serious about their ideals of their community see cochlear implants as a threat, because cochlear implants are considered as cure. Countless number of controversies over cochlear implants have been brought up, but the Deaf community should see cochlear implants as gift for patients rather than an extreme threat.

The younger you are implanted the better the chances of being able to fully hear are. The older you are when implanted the less likely the chances of being able to fully hear are. In 2010 it was reported that over 40 million Americans are older than 65 years old, of those 40 million many will most likely experience hearing loss. By the year of 2050, the amount of senior citizens will increase by 147%(Sladen, D. P., & Zappler, A. (2015)). That is more people with hearing loss and that means a growing need for an implant that may or may not work because of the age of the user. "An estimated 65% of people 10 years and older have a hearing impairment(Sladen, D. P., & Zappler, A. (2015))." With the older a person becomes the more hearing loss they have. While losing hearing it would be very difficult to gain hearing back with an implant. By implanting a child at a young age you still need to work with the to train the how to use the implants. There has been new resources for teacher and therapists of children who have been implanted with cochlear implants. They are called musical ears and they help improve the child's musicality at a young age (Musical resources for working with children with CIs. (2010, August). The Hearing Review, 17(9), 48).That is why it is very important that if one is thinking about being implanted or implanting a child it should be done at a young

There are used in children as young as one year of age. Doing the operation this early provides a greater chance of the child catching up on speech and other areas of the development. But the age at which each individual child receives an implant will depend on many factors. Children who have additional health problems, who are underweight, or who have certain types of hearing loss may not be eligible for implants temporarily or permanently Currently modern medical techniques have resulted in the creation of many options that a person can use to compensate for a hearing deficit or complete loss. The cochlear implant is placed directly into the ear and looks like a seashell-shaped organ in the inner ear lined with 30,000 hair cells. In a normal cochlea, the hair cells turn sound into impulses that are sent to the brain where they are interpreted as speech, music, or other auditory information about the world. In most deaf persons, auditory nerve fibers are intact, but the mechanism to receive the information through the hair cells is absent. Thus, regular hearing aids are ineffective as they typically only boost the amplitude of sound input. The cochlear implant is a wire that replaces a person's missing hair cells, it wraps inside the cochlea and, attached to a small external computer typically worn on the person's belt, also translates sound into impulses sent to a transmitter that relays it back to the implant, that relays it to the brain. At this time, only one implant is being done per person, as developers of the device have not perfected how to coordinate the operation of two implants to provide accurate information relay to the

In 2008 cochlear announces 120,000 Nucleus cochlear implant recipients, designed for sufferers of high frequency hearing loss 2009 cochlear nucleus 5 system released. Cochlear is the state-of-art headquarters and manufacturing facility, a research and technology hub dedicated to pioneering the future of hearing innovation. A total amount of number recipients helped by Cochlear exceeds 250,000 worldwide and they became an 5 upgrade for Nucleus 24 implant recipients. Children and adults who are deaf got cochlear implant and it changed their lives ever since they got them because they were once deaf and now they can some what hear what people tell them

Good Morning Ladies, Gentlemen and Ms Lester. I am here today to talk about Cochlear Implant or bionic ear. I am here to talk about why it helps deaf people, does it improve hearing ability and the side effect of wearing one. A simple Australian technology that changes the nation. People around the world use this amazing technology, even today. Sciences and inventor have made this technology to help improve deaf people like Sarah Churman and help improve hearing ability, but not only that. It can change your life if you even need one.

The internal receiver and non-magnetic plug are then placed under the skin away from the incision. Sennaroglu and Ziyal (2012) state that “care must be taken so that the incision does not directly cross the area where the receiver/stimulator is to be placed. Failure to do this may cause device extrusion.” After the surgeon removes the temporal bone and the schwannoma, he identifies the landmarks of the lateral recess, specifically the foramen of Luschka (senna). The foramen of Luschka can be found by locating the IX cranial nerve. “In the surgical setting, where there is almost always distortion of the brain stem from the tumor, the foramen of Luschka is located superior to the ninth nerve” (senna). After identifying the landmarks of the lateral recess, dissection is stopped, and the posterior fossa is occluded with gelfoam. At this point, the surgeon secures the receiver in the outer table of the skull. Dissection then continues in the posterior fossa. Next, the ground electrode is placed under the temporalis muscle, and the electrode array’s side mesh is trimmed to fit inside the lateral recess. Finally, the electrodes are carefully inserted into the cochlear nucleus (Wilkinson). Placement of the electrode array is determined by using electrophysiological

The idea is to give someone something they do not have, not a means to fix something broken. Maybe all it takes is ones situation and perspective to see whether or not cochlear implants are beneficial. For someone who lives among

Infants and children who suffer from hearing loss are at an increased risk for developing delayed speech, language, social, and emotional skills 1. Many children who suffer from mild to moderate hearing loss have great success with hearing aids, however those who are born profoundly deaf cannot benefit from hearing aids alone. If a profoundly deaf individual chooses to hear their only option is to have cochlear implants. Cochlear implants are a two-part system consisting of external and internal parts 2. The external part is much like a hearing aid that has a transmitter, speech processor, and microphone 2. The internal parts consist of the receiver and electrodes. The speech processor process sounds, sends the code to the transmitter 2. The

Sounds and speech are captured by a microphone and sent to the external speech processor. The processor then translates the sounds into electrical signals, which are then sent to the transmitting coil. These codes travel up a cable to the headpiece and are transmitted across the skin through radio waves to the implanted cochlea electrodes. The electrodes’ signals then stimulate the auditory nerve fibres to send information to the brain where it is interpreted as meaningful sound.