O. Ribari

Semmelweis Univ. ENT Dept.

Budapest, Hungary

Author gives account of their 13 year long experience of cochlear implantation. Both prelingual and postlingual adults and children were operated and different devices and techniques have been used. Also various speech processors were applied; at first a digital pulsatile sound-encoding system, later on analogue processors were in use, while processors operating on the basis of the CIS strategy are preferred nowadays. In several cases contralateral hearing improvement was observed six months after the operation. Evaluating cochlear implant performance, in addition to the usual audiological tests measuring postoperative speech understanding, warble tone sound field thresholds were established, as well.