The other day I came across a boat-load (yes, a whole boat-load) of blogs of deaf children. Many of them have already had the cochlear implant process.
My question to these parents are: what type of CI (which company) did you choose for your child and why?
11 comments:
Med-El (unusual, I know), due to deeper electrode insertion (more natural pitch perception and voice tone), more research into new products/strategies, smaller internal device, and smaller and lighter processor. No distended little ears. Oh, and because of the option to have it completely OFF her ears, with the processor on her shoulder and just the coil sticking to her head. And I like the new BTE design and colors.
Oh, one more thing... One company claims to be the most reliable, but they are equally reliable for internal devices. However, that very company has the highest failure rate for the external processor, as well as the longest wait times to have the processor repaired. The Med-El processor automatically shuts itself off when it notices an energy surge (like static) or MAP irregularity, and usually it's fine when it goes back on.
Failure rates of internal devices are not all the same. Here's an article from Ear and Hearing from 2007. Advanced Bionics had a manufacturing problem that has since been fixed. Cochlear comes out most reliable in this study.
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A multicenter study of device failure in European cochlear implant centers.
by Battmer RD, O'Donoghue GM, Lenarz T., Ear Hear. 2007 Apr;28(2 Suppl):95S-99S.
Department of Otolaryngology, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hannover,
Germany. Battmer.Rolf-Dieter@mh-hannover.de
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the failure rate of cochlear implant systems across a range of European implant centers. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective review. SETTING:
Tertiary care cochlear implant centers in Europe. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A postal questionnaire was designed to assess the incidence and mode of total device
failure and was sent to 34 European clinics. RESULTS: Twenty seven (79%) centers replied providing data on 12,856 devices of which 488 (3.79%) had undergone total
device failure. Of 8,581 Nucleus devices (Cochlear, Sydney, Australia), 169 had failed; of 1,761 Advanced Bionics systems (Advanced Bionics, Sylmar, USA), 123
had failed; of 1987 Med El devices (Med-El, Innsbruck, Austria), 179 had failed; and of 527 MXM devices (Laboratoires MXM, Vallauris, France), 17 had failed. Six
(22%) centers never reported failures to competent authorities. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that the overall reliability of cochlear implant systems is
satisfactory but that reliability varies considerably between individual systems. There is a compelling need for agreed international definitions of failure andfor the adoption of uniform reporting protocols. A common database, independent
of the industry, would offer greater transparency to users and clinics.
We chose Cochlear Americas Freedom for many reasons. First and foremost was safety. We felt like they had the least amount of infection rate and lowest failure rate. In fact, I haven't found any infections caused with these units. We were very concerned about the meningitis caused by some implants and because of the design of this device they do not seem to have this problem. We do not immunize due to other health issues and our son did not even receive the standard meningitis vaccine before implant and hasn't had any problems with his device. My nephew had another brand implanted and they had some trouble with it, along with not having some of the same great listening features that the Freedom has. One thing I would suggest: if you go with a CI, be very thoughtful when you pick out colors - it is a ONE time shot. He was 18 months when implanted and we picked fun colors (blue and silver), but now that we've been into it for awhile I wish we would've chosen at least ONE neutral color that would have matched his hair and skin tone and not stand out so much. At least then he would have an option to go low profile.
Make sure you look carefully at all the companies. I don't remember which brand it is, but there is one brand that's device design is more prone to causing meningitis.
We chose Cochlear as well, and are happy we did. They have an excellent record of making the latest, improved processors available to people with their older internal implants. Watch the news -- there's a rumor they have something new coming out soon -- a thinner implant and also a new external sound processor. (There's a recent on-line article in The Age, an Australian newspaper about it. Search Google News for it.)
The implant that had a higher rate of meningitis was an Advanced Bionics electrode with positioner. This was pulled from the market at least 5 years ago, so there should not be any worries about that, should you decide to choose that brand. There is no more positioner.
Doctors don't know if having cochlear implants makes people more susceptible to meningitis or if people who have implants sometimes have other things wrong with their inner ear anatomy that makes them more susceptible to meningitis and they may have gotten it anyway even without an implant.
I personally can't imagine not immunizing a child with a cochlear implant against meningitis-causing bacteria. I am surprised that the surgeon was OK with that, actually. People with the Cochlear brand HAVE gotten meningitis.
We chose Cochlear, and here's why: BABY! Because all 3 companies really do have excellent reputations, and it's more the therapy afterwards than the actual implant itself that's important, we chose Cochlear because of the extra features for babies.
The babyworn processor fits on the baby's ear easier and clips to the clothing, and then can easily be turned into a regular BTE when the child is big enough to carry it on his ear. At this point with AB, you'd have to get a bodyworn processor, and then you'd be stuck with it when you'd want a BTE. I have been told that AB is working on a babyworn option too. I'm not sure when it will be ready though. I would venture to say that 90% of the implanted babies that I read blogs for chose Cochlear, and probably for that very reason.
Although it's only been 5 months for us, we've been very pleased so far, with no complaints.
Hi
I found you blog through Drew's Mom.
I am a mom of 3, 2 of which have hearing loss. Jared, our oldest wears hearing aids and Allison is profoundly deaf and was implanted with her CI's in Jan 2005 and April 2008.
Both my kids are being raised orally and just finished their 1st and K year in a typical classroom(with no sign lanuage).
While we are a little farther down the CI road than you are, I hope that we can be of some help to you. It sometimes helps to see what the future holds and to see how well other children are doing.
Check out our blog, if you are interested. krullfamily5.blogspot.com
I look forward to seeing how things go for you and your son.
I will be praying that all goes well with all of the testing and such.
Hello..I'm a new reader..
I'm a deaf adult woman with CI , and I chose cochlear's freedom too.
One of the reason was the forwards and backwards compatible processors with any implant.That means that I can get upgraded any time.
Second reason was that it had both options readily , recharges and disposable batteries.I go between them as needed!
Second , as I sometimes look after kids , the Lock feature ( which is made for baby wearing , so they won't change any setting ) is useful to me too.Dead useful.
Thirdly , and most important , it had the LCD screen built in.Which was more important to me , in the first stages.It has its own messages for low battery , faulty coil , the maps , whether u set it on T-Coil or not.It also has a blinking light to show from away something , but it can be turned off later.
The babyworn to my opinion is an added advantage.
And if you wanted to go shoulder worn , you can do it , just by ordering long coils and pinning the proccessor on shoulder.I do it a lot of the time , and it's the same in aspect of hearing.
Last , the global aspect came in view.Cochlear has offices pretty everywhere in the globe.
Also , the distended little ears are not from the BTE always.sometimes after operation the ear isn't right , or it takes a LONGER time to recuperate.or the doctor has sewn it a little outer and lower than he should.Which happened to my case , but the difference barely shows , plus , it gets outweighed from the benefits I get.
I only wish there would be pink coils too , to show it off!haha!
Thank you all for your input. It is a great blessing to Shelley and I that we have a "family" on-line that understand and has advise when we need you. God bless all of you!!
Thom
Our son has bilateral Cochlear Freedoms - implanted at 1 yr and now is 2 1/2. After researching the three companies, we were leaning towards Cochlear because of wearing options, reliability, and customer service. What finalized the decision for us was meeting our surgeon. He only offers Cochlear and AB and he STRONGLY recommended Cochlear. He's been doing CI's for over 20 yrs and has only had problems with AB. He's never had to do a reimplantation on Cochlear. That pretty much confirmed the decision for us. He's had them 19 mths and if we had to do it again we would pick Cochlear still.
www.buzzsjourney.blogspot.com
I have a Cochlear Implant under Cochlear Americas. It was the only one offered back in 1995 when I was implanted. That's right, 14 years ago!! I absolutely love my parents for getting it for me even though it meant a ton of speech therapy (which i don't really remember anyway). Seeing that I have the internal Nucleus 22 implant, It has been nice not having to re-implant whenever I want to upgrade the external processor. I have the Freedom BTE made for the Nucleus 22 (internal processor implanted inside me). As for the Freedom for kids, I wish I had that option! When I was back as a kid, I had to wear this.
- www.cochlearstore.com/.../ cat_index_spectra.gif
So if you choose any kind of implant, I know that Med-EL isn't the greatest because alot of my deaf friends who are my age or in their 20's hate it. They have never heard much with Med-El... but quite a few with Advanced Bionic Ears and Cochlear can hear perfectly normal.
Here's a site with stories.. www.cochlearimplantonline.com. This girl and her sister are amazing.
-linds.
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