FIRST COCHLEAR IMPLANT SURGERY

Department of ENT, Yenepoya Medical College and Hospital, Deralakatte, Mangalore successfully performed the first cochlear implant surgery on a 2-year-old congenitally hearing-impaired child, under the government of Karnataka’s Cochlear Implant scheme. The surgery was performed by Dr Deekshith Rajmohan, Cochlear Implant Surgeon under the mentorship of Dr Ramesh Kaulgud, Senior Consultant and CI surgeon, K C general Hospital, Bangalore. Post-surgery the cochlear implant ‘switch-on’ session was conducted by a team of Audiologist Miss Nimalka, Assistant Professor; Miss Shwetha Prabhu, Associate Professor under the guidance of Dr. Jayashree Bhat, Professor from the Department of Audiology and Speech-languagepathology. It was a joyous moment for the parents to notice the child responding to the sound. Dr GangadharaSomayaji Registrar Yenepoya (Deemed to be university), Dr M S Moosabba Principal, Dr Habib Rahaman Medical superintendent and Dr Sai Manohar HOD of ENT werepresent during the session and handed over cochlear implant kit to the parents. Dr Deekshith also stated there are many kids who are born with hearing deficit but because ofdelay in treatment many a times speech also gets affected. However in this case we were lucky tocounsel the parents and get her implanted at a very early age. In India around 5 per 1000 childrenare born with some hearing problems and deficits. To identify such children we need to makenewborn screening compulsory at every hospital during birth. Ideally cochlear implant surgeriesare done around 1 year and in some instances it can be done earlier too. He also stated that earlyidentification and treatment is the key for successful outcome. Dr Deekshith further said that Yenepoya medical college and hospital, Derlakatte is empanelled under government of Karnataka scheme for cochlear implantation under the age of 6 years andpatients can make use of the provision. He also urged all the parents with hearing impairedchildren to make use of the advanced technology and government schemes. Miss Shwetha Prabhu, informed the parents to make the effective use of Cochlear implantthrough post-surgery training using auditory verbal therapy (AVT) to improve child’s spokenlanguage development. Currently the child is undergoing regular auditory verbal therapy (AVT).