The UCSF/Storz cochlear implant: patient performance

Clinical trials of the UCSF/Storz multichannel cochlear implant were initiated in February 1985, under the sponsorship of Storz Instrument Company. This four-channel device uses simultaneous bipolar, radial stimulation and a vocoder-based speech processing scheme. To date, eighteen patients have been implanted with the UCSF/Storz implant at four clinical centers in the United States. Based on data accumulated through June 1986, fifteen of these patients had received their speech processors and were given at least an initial evaluation of their performance with the implant. Results have been very encouraging, with all but two of these patients obtaining some degree of open-set auditory-only speech recognition. Most patients have demonstrated improvement over time without extensive rehabilitative intervention and all patients have attained an enhancement in lip-reading ability, as measured with a tracking procedure. According to a self-rated performance scale, all patients have experienced improvement in general communicative function since receiving the implant.