What happens during cochlear implant surgery?
You’ll receive general anesthesia before surgery. Your surgeon then:
- Makes a small incision behind your ear to insert the implant.
- Creates an opening in the bone behind your ear that connects to your cochlea.
- Uses the opening to place the electrodes on the end of the implant that connect the cochlea to the transmitter.
- Uses sutures to close the incision behind your ear.
What happens right after cochlear implant surgery?
Cochlear implant surgery is an outpatient procedure. That means you won’t stay in the hospital overnight.
What happens after that?
About two weeks after your surgery, you’ll have a follow-up appointment where your audiologist will:
- Put the sound processor in place and adjust its fit.
- Check the transmitter and electrodes to be sure they’re working.
- Turn on the device and assess what you can hear.
- Adjust the device so you’re hearing as well as you can.
Hearing is a learned behavior. If you have hearing loss, your brain needs to relearn how to process sounds. Most people with cochlear implants work with an audiologist or a speech-language pathologist (SLP) to help their brains understand what sounds mean. Patients need to be committed to doing auditory-based relearning to optimize the benefit.
How long do cochlear implants last?
That depends on the device. In general, the internal parts — the transmitter and electrodes — last indefinitely. The external parts — the sound processer and microphone — typically last five to 10 years.
What are the potential benefits of this treatment?
There are many benefits to having a cochlear implant, whether you’re someone with complete hearing loss or someone who can still hear with the help of hearing aids but wants to hear better.
People with hearing loss who have cochlear implants can use phones and can often enjoy participating in conversations in groups or while in noisy places.
Children born with hearing loss often learn to speak as soon as children who don’t have hearing loss.
Do cochlear implants have a 100% success rate?
Hearing loss is different for everyone who experiences it. For example, success for children born with hearing loss depends on their families’ goals for their child’s hearing.
Almost all adults who develop hearing loss after having it throughout their lives do well with cochlear implants. How much benefit they get from cochlear implants depends on factors, including:
- Whether their hearing loss was sudden or gradual.
- How long they’ve had hearing loss.
- Whether they consistently used hearing aids before having hearing loss.
- Whether they wear their implant consistently.
- Whether they participate in hearing therapy.
Likewise, success varies depending on people’s hearing loss goals and factors.
What are the risks or complications of this treatment?
All surgeries come with risk, including risks associated with general anesthesia and infection. The benefits of cochlear implants far outweigh the risks of surgery. Risks specific to cochlear implant surgery include:
- Nerve damage: Very rarely, cochlear implant surgery may damage nerves that run through your middle ear and near the spot where your surgeon needs to place your implant. If that happens, you could have taste issues, weakness on the side of your face with the implant or a sense of numbness around your ear.
- Meningitis: Rarely, people with unusual inner ear structures develop meningitis. Their providers may recommend they be vaccinated against meningitis to reduce the risk of developing the condition.
- Cerebrospinal fluid leaks: Rarely, people whose cochlea is shaped differently may develop this issue. You have fluid in the tissue that surrounds your brain and spinal cord, including the subarachnoid space. The subarachnoid space connects to part of your inner ear. Cochlear implant surgery involves placing holes in your inner ear. When that happens, you may develop a cerebrospinal fluid leak.
- Loss of residual hearing: Residual hearing is hearing you still have despite severe or profound hearing loss. Cochlear implant surgery may damage some remaining cochlear hair cells, so you don’t have that residual hearing.
- Dizziness or vertigo: Your cochlea also helps manage balance. Surgery may affect your sense of balance.
- Tinnitus (ringing in your ears): Cochlear implants typically reduce tinnitus, but tinnitus may be more noticeable during surgery.
I have some hearing ability. Will I lose all hearing if I have a cochlear implant?
No, you won’t. Historically, you could expect to lose all hearing after cochlear implant surgery. But improved cochlear implant surgery techniques and implant design means about 50% of people who do have some hearing retain their hearing after surgery.
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