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Med-El Cochlear implant


jsussman

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Hello,

I have a profound hearing loss with a very complex inner ear anatomy. 

I am making the switch from Cochlear to a MEDEL cochlear implant. Due to my complex inner ear anatomy, it was felt that I would be a candidate for the MEDEL custom electrode. I was wondering if anyone can share their experience and/or feedback about their MEDEL custom electrode and if anyone has had a Cochlear before, that would be greatly appreciated!

 

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Welcome.  I do not have custom electrodes from Med-El but have read others report that they do.  Best of luck to you!

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20 hours ago, jsussman said:

Hello,

I have a profound hearing loss with a very complex inner ear anatomy. 

I am making the switch from Cochlear to a MEDEL cochlear implant. Due to my complex inner ear anatomy, it was felt that I would be a candidate for the MEDEL custom electrode. I was wondering if anyone can share their experience and/or feedback about their MEDEL custom electrode and if anyone has had a Cochlear before, that would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

Hello and welcome on the forum!

Can you say more about yourself, where do you come for?

Regarding your situation - it˙s a quite unusual situation... You didn`t perform well with Cochlear implant or ...? 

We would be glad to read few sentences about your experience...?

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Welcome to the hearpeers community!! I myself am bilateral but do not have one of the form series of electrode that you will need so I can't answer much about it. I would suggest going to the Medel website as they have video stories of recipients with different types of implants. Maybe you can gain some info from watching these videos. They are closed captioned as well

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This is even more unique situation... Changing implants in total... I believe there is no such patient there...

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I had little bit of free time, so I have found few interesting sources.

First, Med-EL Blog interview with the director of the department responsible for an electrode development: 

http://www.medel.com/blog/meet-med-els-electrode-array-wizard-claude-jolly/

One study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24560093

For a more accurate answer we should have more information, however...

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Ivana, I could be wrong but I think that jsussman was was saying that they had planned to go with Cochlear but had to change to Medel as they have an array that would work with their ear situation.

 

that being said, I have heard of people going with a different CI company after a failure and explanation.

i have also heard of a very few with one company CI on one side and another company CI on the other

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I have had a few perilymph fistulas. They used a muscle graft to "plug" the hole

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The original poster's profile mentions being implanted for 5 years and also mentions common cavity.

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Thanks for the responses and sorry for the confusions! I am actually 31 years old, and I am from Toronto, Canada. I had my implant done when I was 13 years old with a Cochlear Nucleus 24. So, I have had a cochlear implant for quite some time. At the time of activation, I heard extremely well, with almost perfect HINT and sentence scores. Unfortunately, my hearing declined after two years. This might in part be due to the common cavity cochlea that I was born with. My MAPpings have been changed numerous times as a result of facial nerve stimulations but we could not improve my hearing. I have decided to make the switch to a MEDEL device due to their customized electrodes and was hoping to get MEDEL recipients feedback. I understand that everyone case is different and it is very individualize, so there is no exact answer to my question, but I was hoping to gather some more information. I was also wondering if there might be any difference from a hearing standpoint with a MEDEL customized electrode versus a regular size MEDEL electrode. 

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Thank you for the clarification.

to make sure I understand, you will be having the Chochlear Americas implant removed with the intent to replace with a Medel? 

It would be hard to say which you would hear "better" with. I think it would really depend on your anatomy. I think the best person to help you decide which electrode array to go with would be your doctor and surgeon as they know your hearing history and anatomy the best. Please let us know how things are progressing and do not hesitate to ask as many more questions as you would like.

adam

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Hello,

Your hearing history is quite interesting.  I'm sorry that your speech understanding dropped after two years.  That must've been very frustrating.

 

I have bilateral Med-El implants and I love them!  I hope you have great success with your implant.  When is your surgery?

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Thanks for the comments and helpful links. I am not sure when the surgery is yet but it will be at some point next month. They have to make the custom electrode. Will keep you posted.

 

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On 14. rujna 2016. at 0:05 AM, Mary Beth said:

The original poster's profile mentions being implanted for 5 years and also mentions common cavity.

Arghhh... I haven't reminded myself to check the personal profile... Tnx. :)

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On 14. rujna 2016. at 0:19 AM, jsussman said:

Thanks for the responses and sorry for the confusions! I am actually 31 years old, and I am from Toronto, Canada. I had my implant done when I was 13 years old with a Cochlear Nucleus 24. So, I have had a cochlear implant for quite some time. At the time of activation, I heard extremely well, with almost perfect HINT and sentence scores. Unfortunately, my hearing declined after two years. This might in part be due to the common cavity cochlea that I was born with. My MAPpings have been changed numerous times as a result of facial nerve stimulations but we could not improve my hearing. I have decided to make the switch to a MEDEL device due to their customized electrodes and was hoping to get MEDEL recipients feedback. I understand that everyone case is different and it is very individualize, so there is no exact answer to my question, but I was hoping to gather some more information. I was also wondering if there might be any difference from a hearing standpoint with a MEDEL customized electrode versus a regular size MEDEL electrode. 

Ok, then your situation is like in this paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16460813

It is the consequence of intracochlear electrode movement during the time - that's why your speech perception has changed over the period of 2 years.

Here is another paper which describe the experience of children with common cavity: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23759335

As you have already had extremely well results, I would dare to think about realistic goal of repeating your previous result although - there is a possibility of dislodging of your electrode again anytime.  

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On 14. rujna 2016. at 7:56 PM, jsussman said:

Thanks for the comments and helpful links. I am not sure when the surgery is yet but it will be at some point next month. They have to make the custom electrode. Will keep you posted.

 

Please do... :)

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