Djourno, Eyries, and the First Implanted Electrical Neural Stimulator to Restore Hearing

The cochlear implant has created a revolution in the treatment of deafness. There are approximately 25,000 individuals with implants worldwide, and the demand for cochlear implants increases nearly 20% each year (1). Although numerous attempts to treat deafness with electricity have been reported over the last several centuries (2), the first reported direct stimulation of the cochlear nerve aimed at generating hearing appeared as recently as 1957 with the work of André Djourno and Charles Eyriès. Despite the revolutionary impact that the cochlear implant has had on otology, these beginnings in Paris with Djourno and Eyriès received little attention. Although they are credited with the first cochlear implant, the details of the work and the subsequent events that led to the hostile parting of the two men have not been reported in the English literature. The purpose of this study is first to present biographical information of these two pioneers and describe the details of the events associated with their efforts. The source of most of this information comes from personal interviews with both men by historian Phillip Seitz. The work will then be revisited, addressing the possibility that Djourno and Eyriès did not perform the first direct cochlear nerve stimulation at all but rather the first cochlear nucleus prosthesis.