‘Effect of cochlear implant surgery decreases with age’

Tribune News Service
Bathinda, November 30

“Children who do not cry at birth are at a higher risk of getting hearing impaired and suffer delayed mental development, if left untreated. The incidence of deafness amongst newborn children is four of 1,000”, said Dr Ashok Gupta, Director of the Fortis hospital, Mohali, during a press conference in the city.

Dr Gupta, HoD of the ENT/Otorhinolaryngology department at the hospital, while sharing information on need for cochlear implant surgery in children with severe to profound sensor neural hearing loss, said: “In the Indian scenario, the disability often remains undetected for long, leading to low rate of success in treatment. Children undergoing surgery at the age of six to nine months have the highest rate of success. Generally, children can be treated upto the age of nine years. However, the rate of success decreases with increase in age.”

He said most children remain undiagnosed or were diagnosed very late. The Union Government has started an early intervention in the form of ‘otoacoustic emission’ as a screening test to be done for every child born at hospital, but it is not being followed strictly. It is done only for high-risk cases, children who had significant jaundice or cried late after birth. There are schemes for financially deprived families to avail free cochlear implant surgery and treatment of deaf children.

He said the success in cochlear surgery depended upon right candidate selection, right evaluation and good quality of implant, in addition to surgical technique. Dr Gupta has already done over 800 cochlea implantations.