Sorry, Your Electrodes Are Dead
The audiologist reassured me, saying that other implant models came with 12 or 16 electrodes, so with 18 left, I was still in pretty good shape. However, if I lose any more electrodes...another surgery might be in my future.
I asked what could cause the loss of these four electrodes. Three possibilities, answered the audiologist. One, something could have happened during surgery. Two, it could be due to the quality of the implant. Three, it could be because of the ear itself somehow damaging the electrodes. Why? Because the wire is so thin, explained the audiologist.
Finally, the audiologist told me that I might do better with fewer electrodes, actually. He thought that having fewer electrodes might make sound clearer for me.
So this leads me to ask a question of those of you in the implantee community: how common a problem is this, to lose electrodes or discover that some electrodes are not working or are damaged? Has this happened to you?
Related: How Long Does a Cochlear Implant Last?
Comments
I am sorry to hear that Jamie. How often, I am not sure, but it’s not unusual, unfortunately, from what I’ve read in the listservs
Well… All of my electrodes are intact in both ears but few on each sides got turned off. It makes big difference for me because I depends on SPEAK
Aw, rotten luck…but with what I read about crossover problems between adjacent electrodes in implants, it sounds about right that some would be turned off to make sounds clearer. Are you finding an improvement since that appointment?
Not common. I worked with many students with CIs and several of them have CIs that are not working right. The doctors often try to minimize by saying that students are better off with less electrodes because they are afraid that the Deaf community will be turned off and will not take the risk of having the surgery. I have known some students to have second or third surgeries to correct the first one.
I do hear it can be common. So far all my electrodes are running. Can you tell a differences in sound quality?
It’s hard to determine how common or uncommon this is because there’s no process of documenting and reporting it across the companies. Is it better with the electrodes off or is it too early to tell?
There is quite a few cases of where people have their electrodes turned off due to abnormal electrical fluctations which sometimes corrects itself at the next mapping. I have heard of some patients having their electrodes turned off because a memebrane encased the particular electrodes and this might happen with a CI patient that has ossification or suffered from meningitis. Other people purposely have some electrodes turned off to gain clarity in speech.
At my daughter’s first mapping for her 2nd implant last week, we found that one electrode (of 22 total) wasn’t working. I asked if it had worked when the implant was tested during surgery (it was, but records showed that they had to work hard to get it to respond, at a level too high to replicate when awake). You may want to find out if those 4 electrodes had worked initially.
Yesterday, we tested it again, with no response, and so our audi turned it off and re-allocated the range of sounds across the remaining 21 electrodes so there would be no gap.
She said that a lot of redundancy is built into these system — losing a few was no big deal, and should not result in any perceived lessening of sound. And I got the impression that it’s relatively common, though I’m glad we’re firing on all electrodes on the other side
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I’m sorry to hear that. I hope you won’t need another surgery.
Jamie, I was implanted on my left side with an Advanced Bionic CI in April of this year. In June they told me that 2 electrodes were failing so they were shut down. Next mapping (I am going to Sunnybrook clinic in Toronto) three more were shut down. The implant and cochlear team were concerned that more would have to be shut down, so they implanted my right side in August. Activation day was a disappointment, as I felt “pulsing” but no sound was heard by me.
I heard all my life, and became profoundly deaf one year ago when I was given a powerful antibiotic. It left me profoundly deaf with no hearing at all.
David