New cochlear implant picks up even whispers

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: A new generation cochlear implant that restores near-normal hearing was implanted in two child patients at a Chennai hospital on Monday, marking the device’s debut in Asia.

The Nucleus Freedom, developed by the Cochlear Corporation of Australia, was implanted in Gokul (2) and Aditya (6) at the Madras ENT Research Foundation, only months after the FDA-approved device was launched in the U.S. The device will be launched across select institutions in India such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Describing the successful implantation as the `start of an exciting phase’, Mohan Kameswaran, ENT consultant and managing director of the Foundation, told reporters that the Rs. 9.50 lakh implant represented the hybridisation of conventional bionic hearing and natural hearing that allowed the patient to pick up even whispers.

A splash-proof design that serves as shield against rain or perspiration in humid tropical zones like Chennai, soft tip electrodes that avoids trauma to the highly sensitive inner ear region and sturdiness that makes it trauma-proof provide the new generation device superiority over the conventional Rs. 4.50 lakhs cochlear implant.

Smart sound features are powered by four micro computers and supports highly advanced sound processing programmes, which allows patients to listen in a crowd, preferentially select one voice among many and adapt easily from a one-to-one setting to a crowded room. The behind the ear or the body-worn configuration affords patients to adapt to situations at the flick of a switch. The MRI-safe feature of the device allows patients with these implants to undergo up to three diagnostic scans.

Virtual channels deliver sound to hearing nerves in patients with residual hearing, which is important as residual hearing is capitalised upon. The implant is effective for children and the elderly, says Dr. Kameswaran, whose next patient is a 76-year-old man.

`New born ear’

Though doctors and audiologists have applied telemetry to assess the quality of the restored hearing faculty in the patients, the device will be activated only after 10 days when the two children will get their `new born ear’.