Histological examination suggests that most profoundly deaf ears have sufficient cochlear nerve fibers for implants, except those with specific destructive pathologies like cholesteatoma or severe internal auditory canal disease.
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Supports broad cochlear implant candidacy in profound deafness; leaves open prospective validation of nerve-specific exclusion criteria.
Operative specimens of cochlear nerve of 56 patients with profound deafness of varying origin were examined under the light microscope and the number of myelinated nerve fibers in each specimen was counted. The transverse fascicular area of each nerve was also determined. When the resulting neuron populations were evaluated with regard to the cochlear implant program the only truly unsuitable ears for artificial stimulation were found to be those with cholesteatoma involving the cochlear nerve and ears with local pathology in the internal auditory canal severe enough to cause atrophy of the cochlear nerve.
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Ylikoski et al. (1984) studied this question.
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