[Experiences with the Vienna auditory prosthesis]

Open set speech comprehension can be achieved by intra- and extracochlear stimulation using an analog broadband signal. There is a tendency that intracochlear provided patients achieve better scores for open set speech comprehension than extracochlear implanted patients. Four prelingually deaf children acquired awareness of tones and sounds and some of them are able to use suprasegmental cues. After reimplantation, speech comprehension scores remain stable. For three patients scores even improve. Controls of the pure-tone audiograms demonstrate that extracochlear implants do not destroy residual hearing.