The totally implantable cochlear implant.

The concept of a totally implantable cochlear implant (TICI) offers the following advantages over the present generation of semi-implantable cochlear implants. These advantages include (1) cosmetics: deafness can be "hidden," because there is no external hardware during use; (2) no external hardware (e.g., cables, speech processor) to fail or be damaged; and (3) hearing possible 24/7, during sleep, in the shower, and while swimming. The TICI would incorporate all of the current external hardware within the buried device itself. There would also have to be external hardware for recharging the batteries and to serve other important diagnostic and functional purposes. All of this must be accomplished safely, without sacrificing performance.