Implanted today - question about electrodes

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KCL

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Hello, I am new to this forum. My Dad (age 66) had implant surgery today in left ear - has not worn HA in this ear for approx 10 yrs and so we don't know if nerve is functioning anymore. Right ear stapedectomy in 1974, great results for many years but now HA (Oticon SP) in right ear of little use as hearing loss now off the scale. Dad has sensorineural loss and otosclerosis in both ears, also tinnitus. Surgeon told me today that only 15 electrodes could be attached (due to condition of cochlea from otosclerosis) and that only 1 of the electrodes responded. Surgeon explained this is not ideal but early days yet and can't really say what the outcome is likely to be until switch-on.
Can anyone give me some advice on what this really means.
 
Cochlear has 22 electrodes, 15 electrodes are a good start as far as I know, now I don't know about the fact that only one electrode responded and how this will affect his outcome when he gets activated, it does make any sense why the surgeon implanted him if he knew previously that your dad has some type of otosclerosis!!, did the surgeon says anything that the rest of the electrodes will function at a later date?, something off here either with the info you have provided or the surgeon tried to make the info as simple as he could, good luck for him, keep us updated
 
KCL said:
Hello, I am new to this forum. My Dad (age 66) had implant surgery today in left ear - has not worn HA in this ear for approx 10 yrs and so we don't know if nerve is functioning anymore. Right ear stapedectomy in 1974, great results for many years but now HA (Oticon SP) in right ear of little use as hearing loss now off the scale. Dad has sensorineural loss and otosclerosis in both ears, also tinnitus. Surgeon told me today that only 15 electrodes could be attached (due to condition of cochlea from otosclerosis) and that only 1 of the electrodes responded. Surgeon explained this is not ideal but early days yet and can't really say what the outcome is likely to be until switch-on.
Can anyone give me some advice on what this really means.
Click to expand...

Hope your dad is feeling OK.

Did they go into the operation knowing there would be limits to what was possible, how damaged the cochlea was already? I think that outcome sounds a bit rough, that they could only insert 15 electrodes (which is fine) but then determined only 1 responding. They technically "activate" the implant for a few seconds during surgery to test so they can immediately reinsert or replace the implant if a technical problem, which is how they got those numbers. I've seen at least one study showing a likelihood of impedance improving after implantation, and my daughter experienced that (improving impedance during the several months post implantation) so maybe they are hoping that some of those others benefit from tissue response around the new electrodes that might improve contact. My daughter has one non-responsive electrode, they just assign the range around it to nearby electrodes and test it every so often to see if any change has occurred.

I think I've heard that you need at least 4-6 channels functioning to be able to reasonable process sounds, and that Cochlear considers 9 its threshold, but I don't have any documentation on that at hand, so maybe others with the research can either back that up or provide better info..
 
Thanks guys for your responses. Because of the Stapedectomy, they couldn't do an MRI prior to surgery - could only do a CT so therefore they had limited information on the "state" of the cochlea prior to surgery. Surgeons are hoping for improvement in the electrodes over the coming weeks but obviously no guarantees. A strange thing is happening, my Dad is convinced that he can hear voices like a radio playing in the background and also he can hear a guitar strumming - surgeons are baffled as to what this could be given that the device is not switched on yet!! Perhaps it's a form of tinnitus? but Dad has had tinnitus for many years and it doesn't sound like that.
 
I met with the surgeon this afternoon and he said that perhaps the surgery stimulated a memory pathway. Dad is able to recognise some of the songs that he is hearing (one is Garth Brooks, "If tomorrow never comes" and another is by Christy Moore. He is definite that it's like a radio station - ie he hears talking in between songs like it's a DJ !! Although the spoken words are not clear - muffled like a radio in another room. Surgeon told us today that switch-on is 18 May so perhaps - am praying that more than 1 electrode will have responded by then.
 
KCL said:
I met with the surgeon this afternoon and he said that perhaps the surgery stimulated a memory pathway. Dad is able to recognise some of the songs that he is hearing (one is Garth Brooks, "If tomorrow never comes" and another is by Christy Moore. He is definite that it's like a radio station - ie he hears talking in between songs like it's a DJ !! Although the spoken words are not clear - muffled like a radio in another room. Surgeon told us today that switch-on is 18 May so perhaps - am praying that more than 1 electrode will have responded by then.
Click to expand...

In all non-seriousness.... If not more than 1 electrode responded by then, is there a 30 day money back guarantee?
 
The above shows that if one has "problems with their ears"-how difficult the operation can be.

PFH some info for you. The 19 year experience Sunnybrook/Toronto has a 60% rejection rate of persons referred there for Cochlear Implant operation. In the same time frame they Implanted 850 persons of which I am one. This information given at a recent Cochlear Implant patients meeting.
Not exactly "clipping your toenails"!

Implanted -Sunnybrook Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
drphil said:
The above shows that if one has "problems with their ears"-how difficult the operation can be.

PFH some info for you. The 19 year experience Sunnybrook/Toronto has a 60% rejection rate of persons referred there for Cochlear Implant operation. In the same time frame they Implanted 850 persons of which I am one. This information given at a recent Cochlear Implant patients meeting.
Not exactly "clipping your toenails"!
Click to expand...

Some info for you....... I already knew that.
 
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