Will I lose my residual hearing after cochlear implant surgery?

This is dependent on which surgeon does your surgery. Dr. Ruffin aims to preserve hearing in every surgery. Immediately after surgery, Dr. Ruffin's overall rate of hearing preservation is very high. Long term results also depend on how a patient's body responds to the electrode. This is because long term inflammation can cause hearing to decrease over time. Unfortunately, long term results are unpredictable.

Patients who keep their residual hearing can try combined cochlear implant and a hearing aid in the same ear. This is called "electroacoustic cochlear implant". This setup tends to do better than standard cochlear implant surgery. It is best for people with ski-slope hearing loss.

Electroacoustic CI was once performed using a shorter electrode called a "hybrid electrode". This hybrid electrode delivers the low frequencies. The low frequencies are delivered by the hearing aid worn on the same ear. Most surgeons no longer use the hybrid electrode. This is because some patients will lose the rest of their low frequency hearing and not have a CI electrode to deliver this needed information.

Today, surgeons are able to use standard length cochlear implant electrodes. This allows patients to access the low frequencies with a CI if they ever need to.

The ability of surgeons to preserve hearing is highly variable. Our program is able to keep hearing very close to their preoperative levels in many patients.

Regardless of whether you use electroacoustic hearing or not, preserving hearing is important. See our article on why preserving residual hearing is important.