Asia’s first successful bilateral cochlear implant surgery with advanced wireless sound processor in a child with Auditory Neuropathy at MGM healthcare

Chennai, November 04, 2020: MGM Healthcare, a multi-specialty quaternary care hospital in the heart of the city under the MGM Institute of ENT , Head & Neck Surgery today announced the launch of the MGM Cochlear Implant programme after the completion of a successful bilateral cochlear implantation surgery performed on a child

The patient Aadya was diagnosed with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder and had troubles with communication after birth and could not keep pace with the speech development with time, despite round the clock efforts and attention from her parents and caregivers. The patient had acquired reasonable communicable speech ability later, but the vocalisation was not in sync with the understanding based on listening. The nerve of hearing was then stimulated with audiological inputs by constant use of the bilateral use of programmable hearing aids for a few years with little improvement. The child then went through Multiple audiological tests which showed signs of stagnation.

The child and the family then approached MGM, who studied the case and discovered that only a Cochlear Implant could help the child. A surgery was then performed on the child by Prof Dr. Sanjeev Mohanty, Senior Consultant & HOD ENT, Head & Neck Surgery, MGM Healthcare who headed the surgical team who implanted an Implant code named, Cochlear profile 632 perimodiolar slim series with wireless ( off the ear ) Kanso 2 speech processor which was launched recently in October 2020.

The surgery turned out to be successful despite the abnormal cochlear anatomy posing a challenge for the surgical team. The anatomical orientation of the cochlea was anomalous and almost juxtaposed with the facial nerve and a large vein around.

 “This is an interesting case and the child is quite lucky as she is implanted technologically with the most advanced device available in the world at present. The device that the child is implanted is considered to be the latest and modern cochlear implant with upto 3 tesla MRI compatibility, wireless sound processor (off the ear ) is functional under water has blue tooth connectivity and can programmed with rechargeable batteries. This device eliminates the hassle of changing batteries, wearing the speech processor behind the ear , cables which was the case in the earlier models of implants and was launched recently just a few weeks back in October making it one of the fewest good moments that took place during this COVID pandemic. This will give a solution of millions of children plagued such these disabilities. I commend the support of the parents who stayed very committed and were able to acquire the best for their daughter inspite of the prohibitive cost. Aadya as of now is the person to receive the first ever bilateral cochlear implants of this combination for auditory neuropathy in asia and MGM is happy to have aided her in this attempt to bring her back to normalcy”, said Prof Dr. Sanjeev Mohanty, Senior Consultant & HOD ENT, Head & Neck Surgery, MGM Healthcare.

The child post-surgery has recovered well and is able to catch up clearly with communication and speech.