In many people a form of hearing loss develops, known as partial deafness, which is characterized by the inability to hear higher frequency sounds while, to some extent, being able to hear low frequency sounds.

For these individuals hearing aids often provide unsatisfactory results in understanding speech or listening to complex sounds such as music. Traditional cochlear implant systems are also not ideal because they do not allow users to benefit from their remaining natural hearing of low frequency sounds.

Combined Electric Acoustic Stimulation, or EAS, is the concept of applying highly integrated hearing aid and cochlear implant technologies together in the same ear. The EAS™ Hearing System is the ideal solution for people with this type of hearing loss.

The hearing aid component of EAS™ acoustically amplifies low frequencies, while the cochlear implant component electrically stimulates the higher frequencies. With the MED-EL EAS™ Hearing System the inner ear is provided with acoustic and electric stimuli in parallel and is able to process both high and low frequency information simultaneously.