News In the Sun

An eight month old baby girl from the Canary Islands has become the youngest patient in Europe to undergo an operation to receive cochlear implants. 

The surgery was carried out in Barcelona and the tiny implants are a world first, in terms of the size of the implants.

Cochlear implants are a surgical procedure in which, a tiny device is implanted in the inner ear, allowing deaf people to hear  

The procedure itself is not new and such implants have been around for some time, with the first operation in Spain performed in 1985.

Since then, nearly 6,000 people in Spain, 40 per cent of them children, have benefited from this procedure and have recovered their hearing thanks to this treatment.

The procedure is now widely available at more than 40 centres around the country.

 What Is a Cochlear Implant?

A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted device that helps overcome problems in the inner ear, or cochlea.The cochlea is a snail-shaped, curled tube located in the area of the ear where nerves are contained. Its function is to gather electrical signals from sound vibrations and transmit them to your auditory nerve (or hearing nerve).The hearing nerve then sends these signals to the brain, where they’re translated into recognizable sounds.If important parts of the cochlea aren’t working properly and the hearing nerve isn’t being stimulated, there’s no way for the electrical signals to get to the brain.Therefore, hearing doesn’t occur. (Sometimes referred to as nerve deafness, this is called sensorineural hearing loss.)

By completely bypassing the damaged part of the cochlea, the cochlear implant uses its own electrical signals to stimulate the auditory nerve, allowing the person to hear.

http://kidshealth.org/

Published on November 6th, 2009 Please leave your comments on the article or letter to the editor on this subject using the form below. All comments are vetted. ... or Share on Facebook