OPS-Code 5-209.g:

A hearing implant in your ear was replaced.

An incision is made behind the ear in order to surgically replace the hearing implant.

The ear is a sensory organ that is used to hear and to maintain one’s balance. There are 3 different areas in the ear: the outer ear, middle ear and inner ear.The middle ear begins behind the eardrum. It consists of the air-filled tympanic cavity and the 3 ossicles.

The actual hearing organ, the cochlea, is in the inner ear. The cochlea consists of a channel of bone in a spiral, like a snail. Inside the cochlea are the sensory cells for hearing. The inner ear connects to the brain via the auditory nerve.The inner ear is filled with fluid.

Noise and sounds from the environment reach our ears as sound waves. When the sound waves meet the eardrum, they make it vibrate. These vibrations are transmitted via the ossicles to the cochlea, getting amplified in the process. In the cochlea the sensory cells convert the vibrations to electrical signals. These signals then pass via the auditory nerve to the brain, where they are perceived and processed.

A hearing implant is a special hearing device that is fitted in the ear. This type of hearing device consists of several parts. The external part sits behind the ear and takes in sounds and noises in the form of sound waves. Another part is located below the scalp behind the ear. This part converts sound waves into electrical signals. These signals are transmitted to the final part of the hearing implant via an electrode lead. This final part is permanently located inside the ear within an opening between the middle ear and the inner ear. This part converts the electrical signals into mechanical vibrations. These vibrations are transmitted directly into the fluid in the inner ear through the opening.