Sunnybrook’s Cochlear Implant Program marked the incredible milestone of implanting their 3,000th recipient

On August 22^nd, Sunnybrook’s Cochlear Implant Program marked the incredible milestone of implanting their 3,000^th recipient. This special multi-disciplinary team has provided leading care for almost four decades.

A cochlear implant is a prosthetic device that replaces the function of the inner ear. It is appropriate for people with severe hearing loss who receive minimal or no benefit from conventional hearing aids. The cochlear implant bypasses the damaged parts of the inner ear and stimulates the auditory nerve of hearing. It consists of an internal device that is surgically placed under the skin and into the inner ear, as well as an external speech processor. Following surgery, patients have several appointments at Sunnybrook to properly calibrate the implant as recipients learn to hear with the novel sound.

Sunnybrook’s cochlear implant team has been closely involved in research around continual improvements to cochlear implant technology, expanding candidacy criteria, sound coding and hearing preservation. Over recent years, these implants have become much smaller and more sophisticated.

The Cochlear Implant Program at Sunnybrook is the largest such program for adults in Canada, and amongst the largest in North America. Located at the Bayview campus, it’s also the designated coordinating site for the province of Ontario. Learn more: https://sunnybrook.ca/content/?page=cochlear-implant-program-information