Toddler undergoes perilous surgery, retrieves hearing

New Delhi: An eight-month-old baby got a new lease of life after undergoing a challenging surgery for a simultaneous cochlear implant (A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted neuroprosthetic device that provides a sense of sound to a person with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss), in both his ears at a city hospital, doctors said.

The baby, a resident of Punjabi Bagh area, was diagnosed with "severe hearing loss" in both his ears, they said. He recently underwent a surgery at Apollo hospital here, and doctors observed him over some period as it was a case of bilateral simultaneous cochlear implant, an electronic medical device that replaces the function of the damaged inner ear.

"At the hospital, his case was referred to Dr Ameet Kishore, senior consultant, ENT & cochlear implant surgeon, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, and then assessed by audiologists at SpHear (Speech & Hearing) clinic (which supports the Apollo Cochlear Implant programme)," a spokesperson of the hospital said.

He was initially fitted with hearing aids to ascertain the level of benefit, as per international protocol. The team eventually confirmed that the child would not get normal hearing with hearing aids, and the family was counselled for cochlear implants.

Even though his age presented a huge challenge, the doctors with the consent of parents decided to go ahead with the surgery, she said.

Kishore said, "When dealing with hearing loss in children at such a young age, the most important part is to restore the hearing of the child as early as possible.

In this child's case the treatment of choice for good hearing restoration was cochlear implant, and on top of that, it was important to restore hearing in both his ears (bilateral simultaneous cochlear implant), which means that implantation was done in both ears at the same time."

It requires extensive surgical expertise and efficiency to safely handle an eight- months-old baby, weighing just 10 kg, which is why many people would hesitate to do this surgery on such a little baby, he said.

He is also probably one of the youngest children to have received bilateral simultaneous cochlear implant in the country, the hospital said.
"The boy has accepted the cochlear implants, is attending the clinic for habilitation twice a week and doing very well so far," said Neevita Narayan, the Audiology Director and Cochlear Implant Specialist at SpHear Clinic.