Cochlear implants. Clinical results: the rehabilitation.

In principle, an acoustic contact with the environment can be achieved in all cochlear implant patients. However, the results vary greatly in our 37 surgically treated cases. On average, our patients can (1) perceive background noises, (2) recognize different human voices, (3) differentiate differences in pitch, (4) improve lip reading and (5) improve pronunciation appreciably. (6) In addition, closed speech is largely understood. Apart from these average values, we were able to observe a beginning of open speech in 20% of the cases (simple sentences from everyday speech). A precise statistical documentation is presented with an evaluation table we have elaborated. The results of comparison between the pre-lingual and post-lingual patients are analyzed statistically. The special significance of subjective evaluation of the advantages of cochlear implant on the part of the patients is pointed out. The lower age limit in our patient material is 10 years.