The Hindu : New Delhi News : AIIMS doctors claim first cochlear implant

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

AIIMS doctors claim first cochlear implant

Staff Reporter

The patient now has "an almost near normal'' hearing capacity

NEW DELHI: Doctors at the Capital's premier All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) claimed to have successfully carried out and rehabilitated the country's first bilateral cochlear implantation patient who underwent the complicated surgery to have cochlear implants fitted in both ears.

The previously hearing-impaired patient now has "an almost near normal'' hearing capacity. The patient over the past two years has undergone what is called the sequential bilateral cochlear implant (surgery of both ears) at the Institute. After the surgeries, the patient underwent extensive rehabilitation procedures to create "a balance" that allows him to use both ears effectively to hear from all sides and at different volume levels.

Recommended for adults, an integral part of the procedure was the ``rehabilitation of the patient where he was taught to synchronise the signals that his ears are getting. He has also to be taught about how to process speech and then be able to communicate,'' said Head of Department, ENT, Prof. R.C. Deka.

The patient's right ear was operated upon in September 2003 and the left ear in 2005. Both the operations went well, said the operating doctor.

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