What is a cochlear implant and who can benefit from it's use?

A Cochlear Implant is an electronic device that replace the diseased inner ear and carry the sound and speech to the hearing nerve and thus to the brain, where we understand the speech and recognize the sounds. This is now considered as the treatment of choice for patients who are severe to profoundly deaf due to damage to the hair cells of cochlea.

Cochlear implant helps you to hear better than a best hearing aid and focus better when in noisy environments. Patients can enjoy music after implant and hear and talk on the phone, and even use their implant processors while swimming. They can feel safer and hear the alarms and the sound of the vehicles.

Best hearing loss treatment

Cochlear Implant helps to bring a congenitally deaf child to hear the world of hearing and speech. This modern technology also helps to restore hearing in adults when it is lost due to infection, trauma and accidents and due to diseases like meniere's disease and otosclerosis.

Adults who develop deafness or children who are born deaf may both benefit from a cochlear implant. Doctors at a local hearing center will be able to determine if this option will be effective based on the reason the individual cannot hear.

COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION is a promising surgery for children who are congenitally deaf and who have no benefit from using hearing aids. it is also a means to obtain hearing back in post lingually deafened adults following hearing loss due to conditions like otosclerosis, Meniere's disease, post traumatic hearing loss and age related hearing loss.

The surgery provides good hearing with promising results with respect to music appreciation and understanding common environmental sounds, also enable children to attain a meaningful speech which is otherwise not possible.

Otosclerosis is another reason for progressive conductive hearing loss which usually affects both ears. The primary modality of treatment is STAPEDOTOMY/STAPEDECTOMY surgery and placement of titanium/ Teflon / PTFE prosthesis. The patient can appreciate betterment of hearing right from the operation table successful surgery in one ear may be followed by surgery of the other ear later.

Hearing restoration is an integral part of mastoid surgeries, which is routinely performed in Ascent hospitals. It includes Ossiculoplasty and placement of devices like PORP/TORP (partial or total ossicular reconstruction prosthesis) in place of ossicle that are eroded secondary to chronic otitis media.

Serous otitis media is a common problem affecting children and at times older individuals, which is effectively managed by endoscopic/microscopic Myringotomy with or without Grommet insertion to facilitate hearing.

Intra tympanic treatment which has showed promising results in cases of idiopathic sudden Sensorineural hearing loss is promptly given to those patients at the earliest to revert the hearing loss.

A Look into the Future

Ascent hospital has one of the best ENT and cochlear implant surgeons in Kerala and is a pioneer hospital for the same with respect to number of surgeries done and the success rate. Here other implantable device surgeries like BAHA, BONE BRIDGE and MIDDLE EAR IMPLANTATION are also being done in appropriately selected patients. Post implant auditory rehabilitation is an integral part of cochlear implantation programme. Ascent hospital is well equipped with an expert audiology team that caters this purpose.

Frequently Asked Questions!!

1. How long does a Cochlear implant last?

The surgically implanted device is meant to last a lifetime. However, there have been some cases in which there has been equipment failure and the device was surgically replaced.

2. Is cochlear implant major surgery?

The cochlear implant procedure is usually considered a minimally invasive surgery. A cochlear implant is a medical device that can partially restore hearing. The implant directly stimulates the auditory nerve to appreciate the sense of sound.

3. Can cochlear implants cure all deafness?

Cochlear implants are complex medical devices that work differently than hearing aids. Cochlear implants do not cure hearing loss or restore hearing, but they do help people with profound or total hearing loss to perceive the sensation of sound.