Z45.3: Adjustment and management of implanted hearing device

The ear is a sensory organ that is used to hear and to maintain one's balance. There are 3 different areas in the ear: the outer ear, middle ear and inner ear. The actual hearing organ, the cochlea, is in the inner ear. The cochlea consists of a channel of bone in a spiral, like a snail. Inside the cochlea are the sensory cells for hearing. The inner ear connects to the brain via the auditory nerve. Noise and sounds from the environment reach our ears as sound waves. When the sound waves meet the eardrum, they make it vibrate. These vibrations are transmitted via the ossicles to the cochlea, getting amplified in the process. In the cochlea the sensory cells convert the vibrations to electrical signals. These signals then pass via the auditory nerve to the brain, where they are perceived and processed.

You have a hearing device that has been implanted. A hearing implant is a hearing device that is entirely or partly anchored, surgically, within the ear. There are different types of devices that can help or enable hearing. Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) take sounds from the environment, convert them and pass them on to specific sites within the ear. These sites can be the cranial bone or the ossicles, for example. Other hearing devices can substitute for the inner ear function.

A hearing device for the inner ear is also known as a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant consists of two parts. The external part takes the sound waves and converts them to electrical signals. The inner part is the actual cochlear implant. It is placed inside the cochlea in the inner ear. The cochlear implant receives the electrical signals and passes them on to the auditory nerves.

Before a hearing device is implanted, a test must be conducted to determine which device is suitable. It is important that the shape of the ear and the type of hearing damage are taken into account. When the device has been implanted, it is adjusted to meet the specific patient's hearing requirements. Various hearing tests can be conducted for this purpose. The patient is also given advice on using the device.