Cochlear Implants for Children
The future-ready design of MED-EL implants means that your child can benefit from the very latest advances in hearing implant technologies from one of the pioneers in the industry - today AND tomorrow.
We offer two housing styles for the internal portion of the implant to accommodate surgical preferences, but the two housing styles offer exactly the same capabilities and compatibilities to the user.
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The SONATATI100 has a titanium case for the electronics package, which is recessed in the mastoid bone (the area behind the ear where cochlear implants are positioned). The thin magnet and receiver coil lie unobtrusively on the surface of the skull and specialized ground and auditory nerve response telemetry electrodes are positioned directly on the surface of the housing. This housing design requires only minimal drilling to recess the electronics package, and this often allows your surgeon to use a somewhat smaller incision for surgery. The SONATA implant has the smallest electronics package in the industry. The PULSARCI100 features a ceramic housing with all of the components, including the electronics, receiver coil and the magnet, housed inside a sealed ceramic case. In addition to the active electrode that is placed in the cochlea, the ground electrode is located at the end of an electrode lead and is placed near the housing. This implant style supports the entire package being surgically recessed in the mastoid bone. If the implant can be fully recessed, then it is less likely that the user will later feel a raised area behind the ear where the package is located. The PULSARCI100 implant is actually the smaller of the two devices in terms of overall size, and is the only device to feature our unique “split” electrode array for totally ossified cochleae. The housing style of the PULSARCI100 implant is one that MED-EL has used for many years, including previous generations of devices, and reflects our many years of experience in building robust ceramic implant housings. |
Whether your surgeon prefers the PULSARCI100 or SONATATI100 housing style, you will have access to exactly the same features and capabilities as an implant user:
New Generation I100 Electronics
MED-EL’s highly advanced I100 electronics platform provides implant users access to the fastest and most effective speech coding strategies available – today and in the future. It supports FineHearing™ for exceptional sound detail and clarity. The I100 platform is the latest technological achievement in implantable medical device design, and it incorporates our decades of experience in developing implantable electronic devices. It contains future-ready components with sleeping features that can be accessed with external speech processor changes or programming software updates as we learn more about the various aspects of FineHearing and set even higher goals for advancement.
Soft & Flexible Electrodes to Protect the Inner Ear
MED-EL’s electrode arrays are specially designed for complete cochlear coverage with maximum protection of the delicate inner ear structures. Protecting the cochlea is especially important for children, because we want to preserve the cochlea for any future developments that might occur later in their lives. Additionally, MED-EL’s wide variety of electrode options ensures an ideal match with every child’s cochlea – including solutions for cochlear malformation and ossification.
Longest Electrode Array
MED-EL offers the longest electrode array (approximately 31mm) for the deepest electrode insertion in the cochlear implant industry. A deep insertion and an optimized spacing of electrode contacts - complete cochlear coverage - provides stimulation of all available nerve fibers along the entire length of the cochlea. In particular, the innermost area of the cochlea, the apex is accessible through MED-EL's unique electrode design. This is the area of the cochlea that codes low pitched sounds. Low pitch sounds contain important speech cues that contribute to intonation, rhythm and vowel discrimination. As nerve fibers can atrophy (die) without stimulation, all areas of the cochlea need to be stimulated at the youngest age possible to ensure that children learn to effectively use sound information.
Objective Measurements
MED-EL cochlear implants support a wide range of objective testing and assessment functions, enabling CI professionals to check implant function precisely. Objective measurements can help the programming audiologist feel more confident that the device is appropriately configured when very young children cannot indicate whether or how well they can hear incoming sound signals in a fitting session. MED-EL’s Comprehensive Diagnostic Toolkit assists audiologists in optimally fitting your child’s cochlear implant.
IRIS Implant Identification
MED-EL’s unique implant identification feature, IRIS (Individual Recognition of the Implant System), prevents stimulation from occurring in cases where speech processors are accidently mixed up and an incorrect speech processor is worn. This is particularly important for bilateral implant users and for school and group situations with numerous children using implants. If two children decide it would be a fun experiment to trade speech processors, the MED-EL implant will refuse to power up unless it recognizes the precise serial number of it’s very own processor!
