Lenarz T, Battmer R D
HNO-Klinik der Medizinischen Hochschule Hannover.
Laryngorhinootologie. 1996 Jan;75(1):1-9. doi: 10.1055/s-2007-997523.
Certain design characteristics of the Clarion device (Advanced Bionics Corp.) make it significantly different from other cochlear implant systems. It has a preformed electrode array to be placed closer to the modiolus, thus providing a more efficient coupling of the electrical signal to the auditory nerve; a telemetric function which permits the evaluation of the implant electronics; and two different speech processing strategies. The strategies are continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) and compressed analog (CA); both can be programmed into the same speech processor and alternatively selected by the patients, as they desire. The surgical procedure is only slightly different from the procedure familiar from the Nucleus system with the exception of a significantly larger cochleostomy.
The results of a series of speech tests designed to evaluate benefit in terms of speech understanding were administered to the first ten Clarion patients and compared to the results of a similar group of patients using the Nucleus system and the M Peak method. From a data-base of more than 300 Nucleus users, it was possible to select ten subjects who had near-equivalent data for onset of deafness, duration of deafness, and age at implantation (so-called matched pairs). In the majority of cases, etiology and course of deafness (progressive or sudden) could also be matched.
It was found that the Clarion patients had higher test scores than the Nucleus patients after two weeks, three months, and six months after implantation. This positive experience with the Clarion device encouraged us to continue implanting this system in patients. As of September 1995, 106 patients (including 35 children between the ages of two and fourteen) are currently enrolled in the study.
A final assessment of results with the Clarion implant is not possible because of the short follow-up. In any case, it appears that the patients with this implant system achieve faster open-set speech understanding and that it is accomplished with less effort in programming and shorter rehabilitation time.
Clarion装置（先进生物科技公司）的某些设计特点使其与其他人工耳蜗系统有显著不同。它有一个预成型电极阵列，可放置得更靠近蜗轴，从而能更有效地将电信号耦合至听神经；具备遥测功能，可对植入电子设备进行评估；还有两种不同的言语处理策略。这两种策略分别是连续交错采样（CIS）和压缩模拟（CA）；二者均可编入同一言语处理器，患者可根据自身需求交替选择。手术过程与Nucleus系统的常规手术仅稍有不同，只是耳蜗造口要大得多。
对首批10名使用Clarion装置的患者进行了一系列旨在评估言语理解获益情况的言语测试，并将结果与一组使用Nucleus系统和M峰方法的类似患者的结果进行比较。从300多名Nucleus使用者的数据库中，挑选出了10名在耳聋起始时间、耳聋持续时间和植入时年龄方面数据相近的受试者（所谓的匹配对）。在大多数情况下，耳聋的病因和病程（进行性或突发性）也能匹配。
发现Clarion装置植入患者在植入后两周、三个月和六个月时的测试分数高于Nucleus装置植入患者。Clarion装置的这种良好效果促使我们继续为患者植入该系统。截至1995年9月，目前有106名患者（包括35名年龄在2岁至14岁之间的儿童）参与该研究。
由于随访时间短，无法对Clarion植入装置的结果进行最终评估。无论如何，似乎使用该植入系统的患者能更快地实现开放式言语理解，且编程工作量较小，康复时间较短。
