Hearing allows your child to experience birds chirping on a spring day, cartoons on a Saturday morning and you saying “I love you.” But for 12,000 children in America each year, these sounds are muffled or not even heard at all. At Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, groundbreaking technology gives many of these children something they have never experienced – the gift of sound.
“A cochlear implant is a small, electronic device that can help both adults and children who are profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing in both ears,” says Robert Battista, MD, an otologist/neurotologist with Adventist Hinsdale Hospital. “These are people who have had little or no benefit from hearing aids.”
Adventist Hinsdale Hospital is the only hospital in Chicago’s western suburbs performing pediatric cochlear implant surgery, which can help children as young as six months. Parents no longer need to bring their children to university hospitals downtown to receive this highly specialized technology; they can have the procedure right in their own community at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital.
Understanding pediatric cochlear implants
Unlike hearing aids, which amplify sound, pediatric cochlear implants work by stimulating the hearing nerve and bypassing the part of the inner ear that does not work.
Pediatric cochlear implants consist of two components: The internal component is surgically implanted under the skin and recessed in the bone behind the ear. The internal component has a receiver and stimulator that are connected to the inner ear (cochlea) by a thin wire. The thin wire is wrapped inside the coils of the cochlea. A removable external component sits behind the ear. The external device has a microphone, sound processor and transmitter and connects to the internal device through magnetic attraction. The external part can be replaced or upgraded as new software becomes available.
Offering hope
Several thousand children have cochlear implants in the United States. “Candidates are evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” Dr. Battista says. “Generally, the shorter the duration of deafness, the better a patient does following implant surgery.”
After surgery, children engage in “mapping” sessions with an audiologist. These sessions ensure that sound levels are appropriate. However, pediatric cochlear implants do not provide a foolproof or immediate cure, and parents are counseled about this before their child undergoes the procedure. “Results depend on the cause and length of hearing loss as well as anatomical issues – all those things come into play,” Dr. Battista explains.
For some children, implants can restore hearing to a near normal level, others may hear a little bit of speech and not understand it. Still, others may only gain sound awareness. No matter what the results, Dr. Battista says pediatric cochlear implants can offer children hope for a future with sound.
For more information, or to find a physician, call us at 866-533-7968.