Confirming what specialists have long speculated, a new study published in the April edition of the Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery magazine, determined that the presence of a cochlear implant could act as a Trojan horse for meningitis by increasing the risk for bacterial infection, the cause of this disease. The authors of this study performed a cochleostomy in the ears of 54 living rats, placed implants on 36 of the rats and monitored them for the presence of meningitis. The disease affected a third of the rats with cochlear implants. The authors of the study noted that, in these cases, cochlear implantation opens the way to the bacterial infection with pneumococcus, the bacteria that causes meningitis. On 60,000 cochlear implant users in the world, 91 have experienced meningitis in the past few years. Recall that in July 2002, the French Agency for the Sanitary Safety of Health Products (AFSSAPS) published a recommendation, through precaution, concerning the Clarion brand cochlear implants (see article in Audio infos No. 66 – November/December 2002).