Deciding on Brand

AshJagla

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Not trying to start brand war by any means!

I am simply trying to gather more and more information in order to choose which CI to get my 16 month old daughter after she finishes the evaluation. She's only just getting fitted for her HAs but her audiogram showed no hearing at 128db, so we're fairly certain CIs will be the only device that she can benefit from, and I was told that I should start researching and preparing myself for it now. Here are my likes and dislike of each brand, please feel free to share which brand your child has and what your favorite things are about it and what you could do without.

Cochlear - Most established, seemingly reliable, always upgrading their mics, great marketing, 50% of CI users have this brand because it was the first to do the implants in the US. However, doesn't seem like the part that is implanted has much room for improvement left, which leaves me concerned.

Med-El - Seems like the underdog, very straight forward, transparent about everything so I don't have to sort through lots of marketing to get facts, small processor, lists their failures right on their site instead of hiding them. Feels the least established to me for some reason, maybe this is just a side effect of their lack of marketing hype.

Advance Bionics - Waterproof Neptune (of course), room for upgrades in the implanted part, seems cutting edge to me, merged with Sonova and sister of Phonak. But the Neptune currently does not have a BTE feature and the implanted part is the harshest of the 3 and most likely to damage residual hearing.

They all seem great, but they all have their drawbacks. Why does the one that you got for your child work for your family? Do you think it's just picking from apples, are they all equal?

((PS we are actively teaching her ASL and plan to continue ASL with her as her primary to back up spoken language while she's at home. We plan to put her in a local communications school until she is "caught up" if that is possible for her, at that time we will let her decide to go to School for the Deaf or mainstream))
 
All 3 offer excellent, cutting edge products, you can't go wrong with any decision you make. After familiarizing yourself with all of the features and stats for each of the 3 products, I'd recommending discussing the options with your surgeon and your CI audiologist.

They can be loathe to come across as making a decision for you, that's for you to do. But you can find out which they are most familiar with and experienced with, which products they have been more successful with (which has had fewer or no re-implantations/revisions required at your CI clinic/hospital), and which product the audi staff you will be working with is more comfortable with and find they can get the best outcomes from. Both the surgical placement and follow-up programming will be so very important, so again, you want to get the hardware your surgeon is most skilled at implanting and the technology that your audis know how to optimize specifically for your child's needs.

The following has been around for a while, but the discussion about choosing a product is still valuable: The CI Circle News: Which Cochlear Implant Brand Should I Choose For My Child?
This one features a child with 2 different brands: The CI Circle News: The Unexpected - An Adoption Tale

As a parent of a child with bilateral CIs, I can tell you that a critical difference was immediately apparent after getting a 2nd CI. At the time, few studies indicated more than incremental gains in the sound booth. And we were so pleased with the results of one CI, we nearly opted not to get a second. But since, we've found the difference in real life, in the classroom, playing with friends, at home, to be enormous. So regardless of product you choose, I heartily recommend going for 2!
 
As a parent of a child with bilateral CIs, I can tell you that a critical difference was immediately apparent after getting a 2nd CI. At the time, few studies indicated more than incremental gains in the sound booth. And we were so pleased with the results of one CI, we nearly opted not to get a second. But since, we've found the difference in real life, in the classroom, playing with friends, at home, to be enormous. So regardless of product you choose, I heartily recommend going for 2!


Agreeing with Grendel ...
As someone born with unilateral total deafness (which progressed to deaf right, hoh left)- I can say first hand that anyone saying that hearing with one ear/CI is ANYTHING like having bilateral hearing has no idea what they're talking about!

Hearing from only one side (in "real life", not a fancy Audio booth) is much more like being deaf (or very Hoh) than hearing.

If you're looking into/ going ahead with CIs then I agree with Grendel, bilateral implantation is something to seriously consider.


Also, one thing to keep in mind - the implant(s) you choose may serve them for years, but at some point they will end up being re-implanted, so you aren't making a "life-long" decision in terms of brand/model ... more likely you're making a 10-20year commitment. (That should take some of the "brand stress" off your shoulders)
 
Great posts, thank you! The great news for us is that the closest hospital that does the surgeries happens to be one of the top 10 hospitals for children getting Cochlear Implants - St Louis Children's Hospital. I'm fairly certain all of their surgeons are highly skilled at placing all 3 implants, but asking which ones have had more failure rates is definitely a great idea. Actually, I read somewhere that they are now doing the surgeries in children as young as 6 months (my little one is already 16mths with deafness not detected until 13mths) and that they are doing many bilateral placements (I think they mean putting both in during the same surgery day) which I would absolute be interested in doing. She had a straight line of no hearing across the board at 128db on both ears, so we know that we want to get her implanted on both sides. I also know that it will also somewhat depend on her cochlea, if it is ossified, partial, or malformed she will be unable to get AB (from my understanding) because their implant is bigger and more intrusive with less flexibility.

Thank you for the additional resources, Grendel, about to look at the links now.
Anij - Thanks for clearing up the commitment issues! I kept getting confused because so many people say they will be stuck with that company for life, but then I would read when something would happen and a patient would need to be reimplanted and couldn't understand why recipients wouldn't have the option to get reimplanted too. I guess they can, but brands don't like to advertise that fact lol.
 
Anij - Thanks for clearing up the commitment issues! I kept getting confused because so many people say they will be stuck with that company for life, but then I would read when something would happen and a patient would need to be reimplanted and couldn't understand why recipients wouldn't have the option to get reimplanted too. I guess they can, but brands don't like to advertise that fact lol.


We have a LOT of people here who've been re-implanted (due to mechanical failures, placement issues or upgrades) ... at least a few have been through 3 implants (for he same ear).

At the end of the day there isn't a "wrong" choice - and you don't necessarily have to go with 2 of the same implants when going bilateral.
 
Most of my friends and my hub picked AB or cochlear. My hub liked both AB and cochlear but picked cochlear.
 
Well we just canceled her CT scan in Jan and made an apt for an MRI this coming Thurs at SLCH (we were going to Cardinal Glennen before) and I was told after this the dr may have a recommendation. I'm kind of hoping he recommends AB though, I think the water proof in up to 6 feet of water is awesome as well as no worries in the sandbox. It also seems the younger generation leans that way and I hope that leads to a bunch of upgrades and new technology. I asked about the implanted piece's size to one of the reps, she said there is a new smaller one in the works that would be more flexible and less destructive to natural hearing, but she's not allowed to disclose any facts until it is FDA approved. Wish I could know when it's coming out =x
 
Oh, forgot to say we had another audiologist apt the 13th and they did another behavioral hearing test (I was wrong on the abr, they only tested up to 100db with no response) and it did turn out that she has about 80db loss in the low tones and 90+db loss in the high frequencies. So she does have some residual hearing, no one explained this to me after the abr at the other hospital. I was a bit overwhelmed at the news, I understand she most likely won't get a ton of benefit from HAs still, but she will def be able to hear something when she gets them next week which is more than I had hoped :D

Our ENT/Surgeon said we should expect to get the implants early Feb if insurance doesn't fight us as well, so that was exciting (and scary) too.

Also went to a beginners signing seminar yesterday through StarNet, was very informative and so much fun. I came straight home and showed my husband and kids everything I was taught. So excited to keep learning and teaching ASL :D
 
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