Cochlear Implants: When to go for it? - Dr. Sreenivasa Murthy T. M

Cochlear implants are specialised electronic equipments. They are also called as miracle ears because they tend to restore one special sense which the human being does not have. We are talking about people who do not have any hearing at all. Despite using any hearing aids in both the ears for a scheduled time of say 3 to 6 months. If a person has not appreciated any amount of hearing improvement, the we recommend that this person is benefited by using a cochlear implant. For that we have to evaluate the age group of the patient and find out what is the cause for the hearing loss and see whether the cochlear implant will benefit them or not. So who are typically patients who benefit from cochlear implants? The best candidates are people who have already established speech, that is adults. If an adult meets with a mishap or an accident or has an illness which can lead to him or her leading to have lost hearing in both the ears, which is not getting benefited from a hearing aid, then those person would be the best person do well with a cochlear implant. So these candidates are called as post lingual candidates. That means somebody who has already acquired speech. The other end of the spectrum are children, who have not developed speech. Children who are born with hearing disabilities or hearing impairment are usually picked up on screening in universal hearing screening programmes or during their developmental years, the parents notice that the child is not responding to certain sounds and then they are worried of the child is hearing well or not. These children are evaluated to find out their grade of hearing loss. Once we know the grade of the hearing loss, they are usually given a 3 to 6 months trial with hearing aids and we see whether the child improves with constant and rigorous speech therapy associated with hearing aid devices if there is no appreciable improvement, then the child will be evaluated for candidacy for cochlear implants. This would then require us to confirm whether the inner ear is developed well and the nerve is developed well and the entire brain is also developed well. So that will require us to do further testing with respect to CT scans and MRIs and other assessments before we assess a child's candidacy for cochlear implants. Ideally a child should be implanted as early as possible and not later than 5 years of age to have the best results with cochlear implants.