A study at the Indiana School of Medicine reports that “cochlear implants in both ears significantly improves quality of life in patients with profound hearing loss and that the cost of the second implant is offset by its benefits.” Read more HERE at Science Daily.
Important to this study, the School of Medicine’s findings may assist deaf individuals in obtaining a second cochlear implant via their health insurance.
Senior study author Richard Miyamoto, M.D., Arilla Spence DeVault Professor and chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, stated that “We didn’t know that cognitive skills and emotional issues would so significantly improve with the implantation of a second cochlear device.” If that’s the case, imagine the cognitive skills and emotional issues for a person that has no cochlear implant.
Advanced Bionics has had ”issues” with the HiRes90k cochlear implant, earning the company a $1.1 Million dollar fine with the FDA. Obviously, just as this study reports, if there are benefits to having two cochlear implants, there is damage to anyone having their one implant removed because of a product defect.
I welcome comments and feedback on this issue, specifically if anyone out there agrees that having two implants makes a difference in terms of knowledge and emotional stability.
You can visit HERE for more information on our cochlear implant practice.
