300 people escaped deafness thanks to cochlear implants

Ho Chi Minh City Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital has implanted multi-channel cochlear implants in 300 patients over the past 15 years, helping the hearing impaired hear and speak well and integrate into life.

On December 16, at the 30th anniversary celebration, Dr. Le Tran Quang Minh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, said that this is a pioneer in the field of cochlear implantation. All 300 surgeries were successful, with patients achieving hearing thresholds in the language area from 3 months to a year after surgery to be able to communicate with the community. Among them were 26 babies under 2 years old, 208 children from 2 to 6 years old.

Cochlear implant surgery at the ENT Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: TP

According to Dr. Minh, the earlier a child is implanted with a cochlear implant, the better their language development will be, ideally before the age of 2. Children with congenital hearing loss can integrate into normal schools after 2-3 years of speech therapy.

In the past, children with congenital hearing loss were often forced to live in silence for the rest of their lives, and could only go to schools for the disabled to learn to communicate by hand or lip reading, but there was no other way to cure them. For children with profound hearing loss, hearing aids were almost useless.

Multi-channel cochlear implantation is a surgical procedure that places a device capable of converting sounds into electrical signals through electrodes placed inside the cochlea. From there, this signal is transmitted to the spiral ganglion cells and then along the auditory nerve to the cerebral cortex. About a month after surgery, the patient is turned on the device, begins to get used to the sound and goes through a process of tolerance.tPractice with the help of an audiologist to be able to hear and speak.

The current difficulty is that each surgery costs about 500 million VND per ear because the equipment is too expensive. In recent years, the HCM City Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital has received about 300-400 deaf and mute cases each year, but the number of surgeries performed is only about 40-50 because the families cannot afford the costs.

According to VNE