Implantation of the CLARION cochlear implant in an ossified cochlea

This report describes the successful implantation of the CLARION Multi-Strategy Cochlear Implant electrode in the totally ossified cochlea of a 5-year-old child via a radical mastoidectomy approach. Postoperatively, the child demonstrated responses to auditory stimuli, even though the electrode array contacted only bone and muscle graft tissue with no visible evidence of nerve fibers or cochlear lumen. Responses to sound did not begin to emerge until 10 weeks following initial stimulation and improved slowly over time. Although the child's postoperative auditory performance is more limited than that of most implanted children, she derives substantially more benefit from her implant than she did from conventional hearing aids.