Multi-channel hearing devices typically used for patients who have tumors on the cochlear nerve and are unable to benefit from cochlear implants after tumor surgery that severs the cochlear nerve. The device electrically stimulates the nerves of cochlea nucleus in the brain stem rather than the inner ear as in cochlear implants. Patients do not gain full hearing, but rather the awareness of sound. For example, recipients will not be able to hear musical melodies, only the beat.

There have only been about one thousand implants. In January 2013, the US FDA approved auditory brainstem implants for children. In May 2013, Grayson Clamp became the first child in the United States to receive an auditory brainstem implant at age 3.