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I have bilateral CI. My first implant (Mi1000 MED_EL CONCERT, Flex 28 on left ear) was successful but the second implant is not working from day one. It has sound but little speech recognition (about 11%). The sound is very high pitched as test shows that electrode number 11 and 12 are drawing high current and had to be disabled for mapping. In addition, CT scan showed that the bad ear has the electrode array inserted to the middle of the cochlear not at the apical area. Not sure if this is electrode migration. I am looking into redoing the implant. Do anyone have the same problem and share the experience? Thank you. James Luk

As I am doing my research into this wonderful world of cochlear implantation, I am focusing on what I believe is the single most important piece of the puzzle - the internal electrode array. That is what causes an implantee to marry a specific brand for life. I've learned about Med El's electrode arrays, and like their features such as electrode positioning and the wavy wiring versus straight wiring to be more flexible within the cochlea itself. Now, I am curious as to the technology of the little "black box" which I presume is like a graphic equalizer which takes the input from the processor received by the internal coil and separates it by frequency and sends the specific frequency to the correct electrode for stimulation. But I want to know more about whats inside and how it does what it does. Being an ex IT professional, I am curious is this more of an "intel" versus "AMD" architecture issue between the companies, or are they all using the same technology within, just branding it differently. Like batteries or antifreeze, there are only one or two manufacturers who MAKE the product, but each company labels and may make superficial changes to be able to call the battery or antifreeze "theirs". Hope I am not too techie with this post, but if Im going to marry something for life, I wanna know all the skeletons in the closet before I commit. ;P Thanks, FarmTownBob!