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Cochlear implantation is a timeous and cost-effective solution for severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and has transformed the lives of many individuals with significant hearing loss. The advent of cochlear implantation has meant that, for the first time, one of the senses (hearing), having been entirely lost, can be restored. The previous article in this series sketched the problem of severe-toprofound SNHL, and how cochlear implantation can overcome this, how a cochlear implant (CI) works, the history of cochlear implantation and the principles of the multidisciplinary CI team. The current status of cochlear implantation in South Africa (SA) is the subject of discussion in this article, the second of this two-part series on cochlear implantation. It comprises a study of the best available current data on the status of CI in SA.

Cochlear implantation is a timeous and cost-effective solution for severe-profound sensorineural hearing loss, and has transformed the lives of many individuals with significant hearing loss. The advent of cochlear implantation has meant that, for the first time, one of the senses (hearing), having been entirely lost, can be restored. This, the first of a two-part series on cochlear implantation in South Africa (SA) puts global (and especially SA) hearing loss in perspective, sets out the principles of cochlear implantation and briefly sketches the history of this world-changing technology.