Introduction
Human beings have been gifted with five basic senses those of touch, sound, smell, sight and taste. Hearing is one of the very essential and treasured senses; any disruption causes us immense concern. However, some of us are most unfortunate to get affected by loss of hearing. The ear is divided into 3 parts (anatomically) as the Outer, Middle and Inner parts.
“The cochlea is the auditory portion of the inner ear. Its core component is the Organ of Corti, the sensory organ of hearing, which is distributed along the partition separating fluid chambers in the coiled tapered tube of the cochlea. The cochlea is divided into three different chambers, each of which is receptive to different frequencies of sound “(Jarvis 2004). Cochlear damage means complete loss of hearing and it can be caused by various factors like exposure to loud noise, meningitis, acoustic tumors or even intake of certain strong antibiotics.
“A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear”. (Bio-Medicine.com, 2009) History of Cochlear implant dates back to the late 18th century, with the first ever implant done by Dr. William House in 1961(Berke 2011). It was only in 1984 that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved implantation for adults. A Cochlear implant has four basic parts: a microphone, a speech processor, a transmitter and receiver/stimulator, and electrodes, which collect the impulses from the stimulator and send them to the brain. Constant endeavours towards improvement is made and implemented. It has to be stated clearly that the implant is only a prosthetic substitute for hearing.
Factors that have impact on an implant Studies show that as of April 2009, around 188,000 people including children across the world have received