20-month-old gets gift of hearing, speech from Aster RV Hospital

NT Correspondent

The Department of ENT and Hearing Implantology at Aster RV Hospital conducted a bilateral simultaneous (both ears) cochlear implant surgery on a 20-month-old baby recently. Shraddha (name changed) was diagnosed with congenital hearing loss during a routine check-up which, if left unaddressed, could leave the child with poor speech development. The patient from West Bengal approached Aster RV Hospital, Bengaluru, after her family did a “background enquiry of the best doctors available for the cochlear implant surgery”.

According to reports, over 27,000 children are born with congenital hearing loss in India each year. In Baby Shraddha’s case, she was screened for hearing loss when the parents noticed that she did not respond to sounds and had not yet begun to speak. She was evaluated in West Bengal when she was 9 months old. Further radiological evaluation was done at Aster RV Hospital and she was deemed fit to undergo bilateral cochlear implant surgery

Dr Rohit Udaya Prasad, Lead Consultant – ENT and Cochlear Implant Surgery, Aster RV Hospital, said, “Hearing loss in a baby can be treated with the help of hearing aids or cochlear implants depending on the severity of the hearing impairment. In Shraddha’s case, we conducted a simultaneous bilateral cochlear implant to help give her the full range of hearing.

“The operating time was significantly reduced as we used the minimally-invasive VERIA technique, which allowed us to discharge her the next day itself, so she could go home and recover. With the help of this technology, baby Shraddha is on the path to hearing and speech development.”

Shraddha responded very well to the surgery. With regular aural and speech rehabilitation, she is expected to develop linguistic skills as per regular development patterns and adapt to the hearing device.

“The problem of hearing loss can often go unnoticed in babies because of the unlikeliness of early screening. After birth, babies with hearing loss can be treated with hearing aids or cochlear implants, which show a better outcome if done early and can dramatically improve the child’s hearing potential versus those who seek help at a later stage.

“The earliest a child can be implanted is the age of 8-9 months. Regular screenings, government screening drives and regulatory policies to mandate such screenings will help identify these kids early,” added Dr Rohit Udaya Prasad.

Incidentally, this is the first simultaneous bilateral cochlear implant surgery conducted on a child as young as this at the Aster group.