Asia’s first bilateral cochlear implant performed by city hosp

The beneficiary, Aadya (14), could not keep pace with the speech development with time despite round-the-clock efforts and attention from her parents and caregivers. Aadya had acquired reasonable communicable speech ability later, but the vocalisation was not in sync with the understanding based on listening.

When brought to MGM Healthcare, doctors noticed that only a cochlear implant would be helpful. Previously, her nerve of the hearing was stimulated with audiological inputs by the constant use of the bilateral use of programmable hearing aids for a few years with little improvement. Despite going through multiple audiological tests, it showed signs of stagnation. The team of doctors led by Dr Sanjeev Mohanty, Senior Consultant & HOD ENT, Head and Neck Surgery at the hospital performed surgery on the child and implanted Cochlear profile 632 perimodiolar slim series with wireless Kanso 2 speech processor, launched only last month.

“The child was lucky as she is implanted with the most technologically advanced device available in the world at present. It is functional underwater, has blue tooth connectivity and can be programmed with rechargeable batteries,” said Dr Sanjeev. The child post-surgery has recovered well and can catch up clearly with communication and speech. MGM Healthcare hospital also announced the launch of its Cochlear Implant Programme with this, which according to Dr Sanjeev will be a boon to children plagued by such disabilities.