ASSESSMENT OF ELECTROSTIMULATION IN CHILDREN SUPPLIED WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANTS

Objective: In children supplied with cochlear implants (CIs), there is an urgent need for objective tests for the assessment of electrostimu lation. Setting: An optimized procedure for intraoperative and post op erative applications with short duration test time, based on the measu rement of the electrical farfield picked up from surface electrodes on the scalp, is presented; therefore, assessment of stimulation is inde pendent of the stimulating electronic circuitry. Outcome: The setup wa s designed for the COMBI40 multichannel CI using a synchronized sampli ng technique of the amplified signals. The evaluation procedure includ es examination of the time course of the signal and calculation of the input output function. With these options, a straightforward judgment of the electrical performance of the implant in situ, reflecting the input to the auditory nerve, is provided.