Figure 1.

Case 1. A 60-year-old woman presented with slowly progressive bilateral hearing loss from age 40. By age 50 she had only minimal gain from hearing aids and when we first saw her they were nearly useless in her daily life. COMBI40+ with regular electrode was used for this patient on Dec 10, 2008. For insertion, the round window approach was applied, and full insertion was achieved. Complete preservation of residual hearing was obtained. (A) Endoscopic view of round window insertion, (B) postoperative X-ray finding, (C) imaging with putative location of electrode and the referential tonotopic map, (D) preoperative and postoperative audiograms. The image of human cochlea neural tissues stained by osmium tetroxide used in Figures 1–5 was kindly provided by Dr C.G. Wright, USWT, Dallas, USA (red, mm from round window; black, corresponding frequency).