Cochlear implant removals?

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dreama

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Hope people don't mind answering my question.

What situation would cause a CI to need removing/replacing?

What would be the most likely cause of that?

How often does it happen?
 
A CI would need removing or replacing if It ceases to work, or if the ci patient is experiencing sever headaches and shocks.
It very rarely happens. But a CI has a 10 year warranty from the surgery date but many CI's function for as long as they can. I had a friend and her internal implant failed after 14 years. She was experiencing severe headaches, dizziness and shocks. They had to turn many electrodes of and she ended up with only 4 electrodes on but she could not hear a thing, so she got reimplanted. Remember this is rare.
 
Also, if there is an untreatable infection. I know of one person this happened to. It is also exceedingly rare.
 
Few ADers had their CI removed... Let them tell you themselves. Other ADers have it replaced as well...
 
Thanks Deaflissa, Fair jour, Leibing and deaf skeptic.

I've also done some searching for information online and came accross this quote at the end of one article but it doesn't seem quite logical to me:

"My friend informed me that she cannot have her CI removed because it is 10 years old and too dangerous of a medical operation
Click to expand...

So is this fact or fiction. It comes from the article here: Cochlear Implants - Reimplantation and Extrusion of Cochlear Implants
 
It sounds completely untrue. My friend's internal implant failed after 14 years. Her surgery went completely normal
 
DeafLissa90 said:
A CI would need removing or replacing if It ceases to work, or if the ci patient is experiencing sever headaches and shocks.
It very rarely happens. But a CI has a 10 year warranty from the surgery date but many CI's function for as long as they can. I had a friend and her internal implant failed after 14 years. She was experiencing severe headaches, dizziness and shocks. They had to turn many electrodes of and she ended up with only 4 electrodes on but she could not hear a thing, so she got reimplanted. Remember this is rare.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your information. So the CI may need replacing after 10 years?

The character I am writing about is implanted aged 2. She needs to have her implant removed age 12 and a half. She does recieve a few bangs on the head age 10-12 which is when her mother reclaims her.
 
DeafLissa90 said:
It sounds completely untrue. My friend's internal implant failed after 14 years. Her surgery went completely normal
Click to expand...

It didn't sound right especially after I read your first post but I just wanted to be sure.
 
I have two friends who had CIs replaced. One was surgery error. The other was an infection.
 
My daughter's implant ceased to work after almost 6 years. We don't know why (it was thoroughly tested by the implant manufacturer after it was out and it passed all the tests). The failure occurred at the same time as an antibiotic resistant ear infection, but we don't know how, or if, that plays into it. It's a complete mystery!

She was reimplanted 4 months later, and that implant worked.
 
MomToDeafChild said:
My daughter's implant ceased to work after almost 6 years. We don't know why (it was thoroughly tested by the implant manufacturer after it was out and it passed all the tests). The failure occurred at the same time as an antibiotic resistant ear infection, but we don't know how, or if, that plays into it. It's a complete mystery!

She was reimplanted 4 months later, and that implant worked.
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Thanks for your information. That sounds painful. Ear infections are very painful anyway (at least mine was) and to have a CI failure on top of that.
 
DeafLissa90 said:
A CI would need removing or replacing if It ceases to work, or if the ci patient is experiencing sever headaches and shocks.It very rarely happens. But a CI has a 10 year warranty from the surgery date but many CI's function for as long as they can. I had a friend and her internal implant failed after 14 years. She was experiencing severe headaches, dizziness and shocks. They had to turn many electrodes of and she ended up with only 4 electrodes on but she could not hear a thing, so she got reimplanted. Remember this is rare.
Click to expand...

I saw a video where a woman who had an implant done because of her severe vertigo and ear ringing. She hoped that it would cure her of her vertigo/ear ringing but it made her sick quite often. She asked that the implant be removed. The doctor refused until she said the magic word "sucide". She had it removed. She really felt much better until few weeks later when she caught a cold, the ear ringing came back.
 
I know someone who has had their CI for 21 years and it's still working to this day.

As far as the reasons why an implant is removed, some of them include migration, headaches and infection.
 
dreama said:
Thanks Deaflissa, Fair jour, Leibing and deaf skeptic.

I've also done some searching for information online and came accross this quote at the end of one article but it doesn't seem quite logical to me:



So is this fact or fiction. It comes from the article here: Cochlear Implants - Reimplantation and Extrusion of Cochlear Implants
Click to expand...

This is purely fictitious. My audi told me if there ever comes a time when my implants cannot be supported due to newer technology, they can be removed.

Note that I am talking many, many years down the road. Cochlear always makes their CIs backwards compatible, so this won't be a concern of mine for quite awhile.
 
Thanks Buffalo and Hearagain.

If your CI started to play up how long does it normally take before they get removed? What would the first signs usually be and if they were ignored or missdiagnosed what would happen next? I expect that in these instances a lot would depend on the level of support you were getting from your CI team?
 
dreama said:
Thanks Buffalo and Hearagain.

If your CI started to play up how long does it normally take before they get removed? What would the first signs usually be and if they were ignored or missdiagnosed what would happen next? I expect that in these instances a lot would depend on the level of support you were getting from your CI team?
Click to expand...

I would like to think that it doesn't take long. It's all depends on the insurance and CI surgeons' schedule actually. Sometimes it can be pushed to be done earlier because it will be a hassle to wait several months to finally "hear" again.

The first signs would probably be silence or weird noises. The person would think perhaps the map got wiped (it can happen). At the audi, that's probably where they will do the electrode test (they do this at every visit that I have gone to). That would make it really obvious if the electrodes aren't working.

I don't think there's really a chance of misdiagnosing because it either works or it doesn't. They don't just test the electrode and find that it's not working, therefore the implant must be removed. There's quite a few tests to make sure that it's the implant/electrodes that's malfunctioning.

I know one person that suddenly had her implant not working. They have tested the implant over and over...it shows it's working, but she's not getting any sounds whatsoever. She had her other ear implanted, works fine. It took her a while, and few CAT scans and more tests (since the implant *is* working, but it's just not functioning the way it should), they finally decided that it was time to replace it. She had it replaced, and now everything is perfect.

Reimplantation and implant malfunctioning is not something any CI audiologist will mess around with.
 
LadySekhmet said:
I would like to think that it doesn't take long. It's all depends on the insurance and CI surgeons' schedule actually. Sometimes it can be pushed to be done earlier because it will be a hassle to wait several months to finally "hear" again.

The first signs would probably be silence or weird noises. The person would think perhaps the map got wiped (it can happen). At the audi, that's probably where they will do the electrode test (they do this at every visit that I have gone to). That would make it really obvious if the electrodes aren't working.

I don't think there's really a chance of misdiagnosing because it either works or it doesn't. They don't just test the electrode and find that it's not working, therefore the implant must be removed. There's quite a few tests to make sure that it's the implant/electrodes that's malfunctioning.

I know one person that suddenly had her implant not working. They have tested the implant over and over...it shows it's working, but she's not getting any sounds whatsoever. She had her other ear implanted, works fine. It took her a while, and few CAT scans and more tests (since the implant *is* working, but it's just not functioning the way it should), they finally decided that it was time to replace it. She had it replaced, and now everything is perfect.

Reimplantation and implant malfunctioning is not something any CI audiologist will mess around with.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for the explanation.
 
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