Choice of clinic and manufacturer
In Germany there are a few very large and many small clinics that implant a CI. Hannover (“CEBIT”) is by far the largest clinic in this country. Getting the CI is not enough to stay in the clinic. Several adjustments follow over the years. If I choose Hannover I have to plan several days for each adjustment. So I looked for a large clinic in my nearby. Since Munich is also one of the largest German clinics I decided to do it there. The journey takes about 1 hour and is closer than my daily trip to work.
It was very important to me that the surgeon has a lot of experience. I have received a recommendation for one and the same person from all over Germany independently of one another. So I chose this person. The disadvantage was that the waiting time will be correspondingly long.
As manufacturer I relied on the surgeon with whom he has the most experience. In my case it was Med-EL. Since each manufacturer has its individual advantages and disadvantages this topic was done. I then had the choice of whether I would like to use a hybrid system (EAS) or whether I would do without it. EAS = electric acoustic stimulation, i.e. stimulation of the auditory nerves on the one hand electrically by the CI in the high frequency range and at the same time acoustically by the hearing aid and eardrum in the low frequency range. The decision is important in case of Med-EL before the operation, because a short or long electrode is used accordingly, which can be inserted far into the cochlea in the low-frequency range.
Even before the operation my hearing loss was borderline for the low frequency range (> 60dB @ 750Hz). My surgeon estimated the probability of losing residual hearing while using EAS at least 20%. That was too much of a risk for me that after the operation I would not hear either acoustically or electrically in the low frequency range. I chose the long electrode. If there are still hearing residues after the operation the external sound processor (SP) can still use EAS. The probability that this will work is significantly lower at 50%.