Cochlear implant is a boon for mute children when the surgery is carried among children during early days. Most of the children remain undiagnosed or are diagnosed very late so regular medical checkup can detect it early and corrective surgery can be undertaken for a better quality of life.
 

Dr Ashok Gupta, Director, Department of ENT, and Head & Neck Cancer Surgery, Fortis Hospital, Mohali told UNI. He said that the main factors which assure success include right candidate selection, right evaluation and good quality of implant in addition to surgical technique.

Another factor that ensures success is post-op rehabilitation, speech therapy to ensure that child starts hearing & speaking. He said that the incidence of deafness amongst newborn children is one of 1000 live born children. He said that the Centre has started early intervention in the form of otoacoustic emission as a screening test to be done for every hospital born child, though it is strictly not being followed. He said that it is done only for high risk cases i.e. children who had significant jaundice/cried late after birth etc.

Dr Sanjay Sachdeva Director Department of ENT, Head and neck surgery Max hospital told UNI here that in Himachal during the last two years he has conducted nearly a dozen such cochlear implant surgeries through the local branch of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanya Kumari free of cost with surprising results. He said that it started with a girl child Shruti from Bhawarna with nice result and continued till date among other mute children free of charges.

He said that cochlear implant costs more than Rs 6 lakhs now is being provided free and he (Dr. Sachdeva) conducts surgery free in theatre of a local private hospital here. He said that these surgeries were proving boon for mute children here.