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Invited Commentary
March 2016

Getting the Most From Cochlear Implants

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland
JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2016;142(3):256-257. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2015.3904

It is no longer true that cochlear implantation is considered successful if the device simply provides some access between a deaf person and the surrounding auditory world. Our expectations for implants have grown so much that we now aspire for them to create or restore normal or near-normal hearing. As binaural creatures, we intuitively grasp that this goal requires bilateral, rather than unilateral, implantation to achieve the same advantages of sound localization and improved hearing in noise that 2 ears provide to normal listeners.1

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