The Modern Cochlear Implant: A Triumph of Biomedical Engineering and the First Substantial Restoration of Human Sense Using a Medical Intervention

Even as recently as the mid-1980s, many experts in otology and auditory science thought that restoration of useful hearing with crude and pervasive electrical stimulation of the cochlea was a fool's dream. The esteemed Prof. Rainer Klinke from Frankfurt (Figure 1) was among the chorus of critics, asserting in 1978 that "from a physiological point of view, cochlear implants will not work." Many others made similar categorical statements.