Assessment of electrostimulation in children supplied with cochlear implants.
OBJECTIVE
In children supplied with cochlear implants (CIs), there is an urgent need for objective tests for the assessment of electrostimulation.


METHODS
An optimized procedure for intraoperative and post-operative applications with short duration test time, based on the measurement of the electrical farfield picked up from surface electrodes on the scalp, is presented; therefore, assessment of stimulation is independent of the stimulating electronic circuitry.


RESULTS
The setup was designed for the COMBI40 multichannel CI using a synchronized sampling technique of the amplified signals. The evaluation procedure includes examination of the time course of the signal and calculation of the input output function. With these options, a straightforward judgment of the electrical performance of the implant in situ, reflecting the input to the auditory nerve, is provided.
Stephan
K
K
Department for Hearing Speech and Voice Disorders, University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Welzl-Müller
K
K
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003638:Deafness / Q000601:surgery*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D016343:Monitoring, Intraoperative; D011182:Postoperative Care; D011300:Preoperative Care; D000159:Vestibulocochlear Nerve