Patients with cochlear implants may want to steer clear of certain magnetic imaging devices, such as 3T MRI machines, because the machines can demagnetize the patient's implant, according to new research published in the December 2008 issue of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

In the six decades since French and American surgeons implanted the first cochlear hearing devices, the procedure in children has become reliable, safe, and relatively free of severe complications, according to research presented during the 2008 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, in Chicago, IL.

Despite previous inconclusive research, geriatric patients do experience significant quality of life improvement (QOL) after receiving cochlear implants for hearing loss, says new research presented at the 2008 American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO in Chicago, IL.

Three studies published in the May 2008 edition of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery reveal substantial new findings in several areas of hearing health, including research that indicates that patients with profound hearing loss benefit substantially from having cochlear implants placed in both ears, rather than one, as is the common practice.

Specifically, it is the shape of the cochlea – the snail-shell-shaped organ in the inner ear that converts sound waves into nerve impulses that the brain deciphers – which proves to be surprisingly important.

The doctoral thesis of Isaac Manuel Álvarez Ruiz has been developed in the Departments of Signal Theory, Telematics, and Communication, and Surgery and its Specialties of the University of Granada, and directed by Professors Ángel de la Torre Vega and Manuel Sainz Quevedo.

A Purdue University researcher is working on a new technique to diagnose hearing loss in a way that more accurately reflects real-world situations.

More than 4,000 children in China who have received cochlear implants and other devices will soon benefit from a speech perception test offered in Mandarin.

Hearing and balance experts at Johns Hopkins report successful testing in animals of an electrical device that partly restores a damaged or impaired sense of balance.

Cochlear implants—electronic devices inserted surgically in the ear to allow deaf people to hear—may restore normal auditory pathways in the brain even after many years of deafness.

Clinical research conducted in the Department of Communication Disorders at the University of Haifa revealed that some children who are born deaf "recover" from their deafness and do not require surgical intervention. To date, most babies who are born deaf are referred for a cochlear implant. "Many parents will say to me: 'My child hears; if I call him, he responds'.