BHUBANESWAR: Surgeons of SUM Ultimate Medicare (SUMUM) successfully placed a cochlear implant on a two-year-old deaf girl child through a minimally invasive procedure.The girl was brought to the hospital with a problem in the inner ear which had rendered her deaf. The baby could not speak because she was unable to hear anything and learn the words.
Devastated upon learning the baby’s condition, her parents, hailing from Sambalpur sought treatment at several places before bringing her to SUMUM. Senior consultant and head of ENT and Skull Base Surgery Dr Radhamadhab Sahu decided to conduct cochlear implant on the child after evaluation.
“We opted for a minimally invasive procedure requiring a small incision to place the device. This approach guarantees less pain and felicitates speedy recovery of the patient. The implant was switched on after 21 days and the girl was subjected to post implant speech therapy for three months,” said Dr Sahu.
The surgery was a challenge for such a young child as the skull bone thickness and pneumatisation was not proper. The baby was subjected to speech therapy and auditory verbal therapy by audiologist Lopamudra Tripathy under Dr Sahu’s guidance.
“In such cases, the younger the child, the better the outcome as exposure to diverse words and sounds accelerates the brain development. The baby is now able to hear and respond to sounds. She will learn to speak gradually,” said Dr Sahu.