[The French multi-electrode cochlear implant Digisonic: clinical results]

The Digisonic is a totally digitized and miniaturized multichannel cochlear implant. Owing to its flexible and articulated array, its 15 electrodes are usually introduced in the scala tympani. A special version of this device has been designed to be used in case of total obstructed cochlea. It consists of separated electrodes which may be inserted one by one in the inner ear in different holes gently drilled in the bony cochlea. The possibilities of the microprocessors allow the speech therapist to carefully select the best width and mean value of each frequency band respectively devoted to each functional electrode. These parameters may be adapted to progressively improve the patient's hearing performances as a function of his phonemic discrimination and or the number and the tonotopy of his functional electrodes. Moreover, owing to the versatility of this digitized emitter a lot of speech coding strategies may be easily programmed as a function of eventual desiderata. Owing to a special assessment protocol the scores presented by our 28 first patients including 5 young children are described. These scores inversely depend on the deafness duration. Thus the cochlear implant placement must be considered as an emergency. Special attention is devoted to the score of patients presenting a totally ossified cochlea.