[Electrical stimulation of hearing in humans: a survey of the actual state of development of an implantable prosthesis for sensorineural deafness (author's transl)].

Recent clinical results show that electrical excitation of hearing sensations with implanted electrodes in the inner ear can be successful in suitable deaf persons. A critical literature review shows that some results have been described too vaguely and that there still exist numerous methodical and technical deficiencies. Even with multichannel stimulation, true tonotopical hearing could not be achieved. Periodicity hearing alone is not sufficient for the discrimination of one-syllable words. However, most deaf persons fitted with surgically implanted electrodes judged the new hearing sensations as being agreeable and quite useful. There seem to be no long term harmful effects of these implants upon the state of the acoustic nerve. However there are still a series of basic questions in auditory physiology pending which can only be solved through intensive collaboration of the clinical disciplines involved.