Two postlingual-deaf patients were implanted with Nucleus 22-channel cochlear implants in october, 1988. These patients were selected according to the following criteria ; 1) bilateral profound-deaf showing the positive response to the promontory test, 2) little or no benefit from a hearing aid, 3) postlingual deaf, 4) eighteen years of age or more, and 5) psychologically & motivationally suitable. Causes of the hearing loss were not verified in both patients and the periods between the onset of the hearing loss and the surgery were of 5 and 15 years, respectively. The patients were fitted with the speech processor at 4 weeks after the surgery. The average openset auditory-only performances on the trisyllable, spondee and monosyllable words in the first month were 36, 23 and 17% respectively. The patients were also able to recognize the openset-environmental sounds in 50% with audition-only, and the speech tracking ability was reached to about 50% of the normal level with speech reading. The patients performed better when combining the implant with the vision than they did with lipreading alone. The implantees were well tolerated, accepted with this device. These initial results suggest that the multi-channel cochlear implants are the promising form of rehabilitation for the profound-deaf patients previously beyond our ability to help.