The History of the Cochlear Implant

From Counts, Electrical Impulses, and Technical Marvels for the Ears

The cochlear implant (CI) is a global success story: According to the European Association of Cochlear Implant Users (EURO-CIU), more than 150,000 patients with hearing loss in Europe can hear again thanks to this technological marvel. Treatment with cochlear implants has long been established. We take a closer look at the history of the cochlear implant.

Hearing implants are a true technological achievement in the field of audiology and a successful example of the interplay between biology, medicine, and technology. Today, they are a standard part of quality hearing care. The cochlear implant is the first—and so far the only—replacement for a sensory organ that works in practice.

According to the European Association of Cochlear Implant Users (EURO-CIU), more than 150,000 people with hearing loss across Europe are currently fitted with a cochlear implant. Worldwide, the number is nearly 400,000, 40% of whom are children.
There are currently around 40,000 cochlear implant users in Germany, with approximately 3,000 new recipients each year.

Facts About Cochlear Implants

In Germany, these technological marvels enable approximately 40,000 people with severe hearing loss or deafness to hear. Worldwide, the prevalence of cochlear implants among children is around 40 percent (figures from the European Association of Cochlear Implant Users (EURO-CIU)). Children who lost their hearing early in life or were born deaf can use this implanted hearing system not only to perceive their environment acoustically. They also have the opportunity to develop age-appropriate speech and language skills.

Implants are typically used when both the inner and middle ear are involved in the hearing loss and when conventional hearing aids are no longer sufficient. The hearing system of a cochlear implant consists of two components:

• an externally worn audio processor with microphones and a transmission coil
• an implant

A surgeon places the implant behind the ear into the bone beneath the scalp. It contains an electrode array that is implanted into the cochlea. The cochlear implant (CI) bypasses the damaged part of the ear and transmits sound directly to the auditory nerve. Learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of a cochlear implant.

The History of the Cochlear Implant

The history of the cochlear implant began in Italy in 1790: Physicist Alessandro Count Volta, inventor of the battery, wondered whether it was possible to hear by electrically stimulating the ear canal. In a self-experiment, he connected batteries to two metal rods and inserted them into his ear. He felt the electrical impulse and perceived a sound resembling the sound of boiling water. Other scientists conducted similar experiments with varying current strengths in the decades that followed. In all cases, they stimulated the auditory nerves extracochlearly—that is, outside the inner ear. Volta’s discovery was soon applied to people with hearing loss to restore their hearing and stimulate the auditory nerve through electrical impulses.

The actual development of this technical marvel for hearing began in the mid-20th century. By this time, researchers already knew that acoustic information in the ear is transmitted to the auditory nerve via bioelectric currents. They therefore sought to replace the lost function of the inner ear with electrical impulses. In the 1930s, they demonstrated that the cochlea must be stimulated in order to hear. In 1950, the researcher Ludenberg directly stimulated the human auditory nerve for the first time, after which his patient was able to perceive sounds again despite severe hearing loss.

The First Cochlear Implant

France, 1957: Physicist André Djourno and otologist Charles Eyries achieved a breakthrough: They implanted electrodes into the cochlea of a deaf patient—the first cochlear implant was born. A radio antenna made it possible to transmit a signal to the electrode. The patient was then able to hear a chirping sound. With a little practice, he eventually began to understand simple words. As a result, American surgeons John M. Doyle and William F. House, along with electrical engineer James Doyle, undertook the first experiments with multiple electrodes. Starting in 1968, doctors in the United States—and a few years later in Australia as well—began implanting both single-channel and multichannel electrode systems.

The Breakthrough of the Technological Marvel for Hearing

In the early 1970s, hospitals in the U.S. began to use cochlear implants with increasing frequency. The first implantations in Europe took place in France (1973), Vienna (1975), and Germany: in Düren in 1979, in Hanover in 1984, and at the Charité in Berlin in 1985. By 1984, 400 adults—most of whom had become deaf later in life—had received cochlear implants in Australia, the United States, and Europe.

Today, cochlear implant treatment is well established in industrialized countries worldwide. The surgery to insert the implant is a routine procedure. Cochlear implants enable an ever-growing number of people of all ages—ranging from those with severe hearing loss to those who are completely deaf—to gain access to the world of sound—and thus the opportunity to actively participate in life.

Do you suffer from severe hearing loss? Are traditional hearing aids not providing you with satisfactory results? Make an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctor to determine whether cochlear implants are an option for your hearing loss. Learn more in our tips for CI users.

Our ENT doctor search tool can help you find a practice near you. You can also contact a nearby cochlear implant center directly. You can find these in our hearing care professional search, which includes over 5,000 hearing care professionals and cochlear implant centers—get advice in person.