Cochlear Implants - Reimplantation and Extrusion

sometimes the implant has to be removed

<DIV>(to have an implant removed). Does this mean she must live with the older CI technology? What about young adults whose parents made the decision to this technology implanted, were the parties informed that removing an implant 10 years later would be dangerous and not recommended by the medical profession? How many thousands of children are trapped living with older generation technology in thier heads that is extremely dangerous to remove due to nerve growth around the implant? My friend was very saddened when she learned that at her present age, her doctor's were strongly against replacing her older CI with a newer CI due to the high probability of threat to her health and well being. She is trapped with a hole in the side of her head and aging technology. This says nothing about the psychological scares she must live with. Where is the medical research on the long term negative impacts of this technology? Children and parents must have informed choice...the good, the bad and the ugly facts... "</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>---</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>"I have a 7 yr old boy who progressively lost hearing until deafened at age 4 years. He was implanted with Nucleus 24 via surgical "C-cut" on scalp. Shortly after surgery, incision became infected. Antiobitics appeared to clear it up. Had trouble with chronic scalp swelling over internal device for one year. The device became exposed. Had surgery to try to repair. Swelling problem continued. Culture revealed methicillan resistant staph aureous (MRSA) infection which is usually contracted in hospitals. CI was explanted.</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>A month later another CI was implanted on opposite side of head. Then after another year, the original side of head was reimplanted. There have been no problems with the last 2 implants. My strong advise to anyone with a CI or ear infection is to INSIST on a pre-antibiotic regimen culture. Had I known this, I could have saved alot of hearing time for my boy. At present date, he has worn the 2nd implant for 1 1/2 years and the 3rd (bilatteral) implant for 5 months. He was still pretty much pre-lingual at the time of the 2nd implantation. It seemed as if he had to start over almost from scratch with receptive/expressive speech. Progress started showing up after 1 year of the second implant."</DIV>