The cochlear implant, an electronic device, consists of a polar array implanted in the cochlea, an external device (a microphone to pick up sound and convert it into an electrical signal) and a signal processor.
In other words, a cochlear implant is an electronic device that is used by a speech processor outside the body to convert external sound into a certain coded form of electrical signal, which is used to restore or rebuild the hearing function of patients with severe and profound or total deafness by directly exciting the auditory nerve through a system of electrodes implanted in the body. The best choice of patients for cochlear implant surgery is for children with pre-speech deafness, especially for congenitally deaf children between the ages of 0 and 3 years, with the best age being around 6 months and 1 year of age at birth. Because pre-speech children have never been exposed to normal sounds, these children are able to quickly accept electronically processed sounds and can receive standardized language training. The results of cochlear implantation in pre-speech congenital children aged 0-3 years are very good.
In the case of acquired total deafness with original hearing, although cochlear implantation surgery can be performed for treatment, the results are not very good. Patients may not be able to have normal conversations with people after surgery, although they can hear and avoid sudden external states.