Scottish Cochlear Implant Programme

Safety for Cochlear Implant Users:

Static Electricity can cause two types of problems with cochlear implant users. Firstly, and most commonly, temporary corruption of the map can occur, but this can be easily rectified at the implant centre. Secondly, and extremely rarely, there have been a few reports of damage to the internal parts of the implant. Of those, which have occurred, the majority has been caused by plastic slides.

Children’s plastic play equipment e.g. plastic slides, crawl tunnels, ball pools. Remove the external parts of the implant, before playing on plastic equipment. It is not sufficient to simply switch off the processor.

School science lessons; Remove all the external parts of the processor when experimenting with static electricity. Van der Graaf generators, as found in school science departments, should never be used by cochlear implant users because they produce very high levels of static electricity.

Clothing Leads and processors should always be worn under clothing so that they do not rub against anything that is charged. When choosing clothes, cotton and natural fibres are best because they are less likely to build up static than man made materials. Fabric conditioner can further reduce the problem. When dressing put the implant equipment on last, and when undressing remove it first. (This is because pulling clothes off can cause a charge to build up.)

Getting out of a car: To avoid getting static shock, adults and older children should keep a hold of the car door until their feet touch the ground. Younger children should be helped out of the car for the same reason.

TV screens and computer monitors You should avoid any of the equipment brushing against the TV screen and discourage young children from touching it. Regular cleaning with an anti-static spray will help to reduce the build up of charge on the screen. The risk of problems from computer screens is very small, but could be reduced even further by fixing an anti-static screen to the computer.

Touch screen computer programs are unlikely to cause problems, but if the software can be operated by using the rubber on the end of a pencil, this will minimise the risk

Touching the speech processor it is possible that you can accumulate a charge yourself and pass it on to the processor when you pick it up. To prevent this happening use the two step approach:

a) When removing a person’s processor; Step 1. Touch the person’s body. Step 2. Touch the equipment

b) When picking up a speech processor from a table: Step 1. Touch the table. Step 2. Pick up the processor.

Scottish Cochlear Implant Programme