Complete Cochlear Coverage

What is complete cochlear coverage?

Complete cochlear coverage means that the entire length of the cochlea, from the most apical to the most basal region is stimulated by the implant’s electrode array. This can only be achieved by the deep insertion of an especially long atraumatic electrode array with an optimal spacing of the electrode contact areas.

Data strongly demonstrate that in both chronic and acute testing the extent of cochlear coverage has an impact on speech discrimination performance. When the distance between the most apical electrode to the most basal is restricted to only approximately 21 mm, performance suffers, regardless of whether this restricted coverage is stimulating the most apical region, the mid-region or the basal region of the cochlea. When the distance between the most apical stimulation and the most basal stimulation is increased to 31 mm, performance improves significantly, by 10 to 30%, depending on the speech measure.

Shallow insertion of short electrode arrays cannot recruit neurons in the apical region. Additionally, studies show that there is a decrease in performance in individuals with a deeply inserted short electrode array.

Stimulation of the entire cochlea by a deeply inserted, long array provides the implant user with the best possible outcomes in speech performance measures and in sound quality.