Most of the children with hearing loss remain undiagnosed or are diagnosed very late. Dr Ashok Gupta, Director, Department of ENT, Fortis Hospital, Mohali on May 26 emphasised the need for Cochlear Implant surgery in children during early days.

Cochlear implants are implantable hearing devices to help restore hearing loss. Dr Gupta also advised for regular medical checkup with specialist so that it can be diagnosed early, and corrective surgery can be taken for a better quality of life.

The treatment is done in the form of cochlear implantation which is a 2-hour surgery and requires 2-3 days hospitalization & the implant requires a switch on after 3 weeks. The main factors which assure success include right candidate selection, right evaluation & good quality of implant in addition to surgical technique.

Another factor that ensures success is post-op rehabilitation, ie; speech therapy to ensure that child starts hearing & speaking. The best results are obtained if the implant is done easily in life that is as early as when the child is 6 months of age. The brain's area for speech development is taken over by visual area after 6 years of age, so earlier the better.

The incidence of deafness amongst newborn children is one of 1000 live born children. Govt. of India 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. It is done only for high risk cases i.e. children who had significant jaundice/cried late after birth etc.

These children require evaluation in the form of field audiometry, ABER & ASSR. Then further evaluation is to see whether cochlear (Hearing Organ) is formed or not by getting CT Scan & MRI of temporal bone. Dr Gupta has already done over 400 cochlear implantations.

Another aspect which he spoke on was the beginning of an era of latest advancement in technology i.e. Robotic Surgery, especially for head and neck cancer cases that were previously considered inoperable. (Recently there was a news on a robotic surgery done in a hospital that was 32cm away from the place where the surgeon operated from, a kind of Tele-robotic surgery.)

Robotic Surgery helps not only to reach the area but also enables easy and complete removal of tumor under endoscopic magnified vision, improves survival, decreases hospital stay and blood loss. It is being done for thyroid surgery as well where-in the incision is a cosmetic concern. The incision made for thyroid robotic surgery is under the hairline hence stays hidden. He has already done 100 cases so far with excellent post-operative outcomes.