ORLive Presents: A Cochlear Implant to Benefit the Deaf; Device Helps Provide a Sense of Sound to People Who Suffer From Hearing Loss

Live Webcast: From Tampa General Hospital: July 26, 2007 at 4:00 PM EDT (20:00 UTC)

A cochlear implant surgery will be performed live over the Internet from Tampa General Hospital on July 26, 2007 at 4 p.m. EDT on www.OR-Live.com. A cochlear implant is an electronic device that helps provide a sense of sound to people who are deaf or severely hard-of-hearing. Both adults and children can benefit from this procedure.

The implant consists of an external portion that sits behind the ear and an internal portion that is surgically placed under the skin. The surgery will be performed at Tampa General Hospital by Loren Bartels, M.D., F.A.C.S., Director of the Tampa Bay Hearing and Balance Center, and Clinical Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine. Christopher Danner, M.D., an ear specialist at the Tampa Bay Hearing and Balance Center will narrate the procedure.

"Children deaf at birth, or who become deaf shortly after birth, can often develop normal language abilities by the age of 3 or 4 if they get a cochlear implant before their first birthday," says Dr. Bartels. Adults who have lost all or most of their hearing later in life can also benefit from the implants. "In our experience, at least 70 - 80% of cochlear implant recipients lost their hearing after learning to speak," he says.

An implant has several components that perform specific functions. A microphone picks up sound from the environment and sends it to a speech processor that selects and arranges the sound. A computer then breaks down sound into small bandwidths, or channels, that travel into the inner ear and are interpreted as sound by the brain. A sound processor/transmitter converts sound into electric impulses and sends the digitized information to an internal receiver/stimulator. From the internal system, a group of electrodes sends the impulses to different regions of the auditory nerve inside the inner ear. The cochlear implant does not restore normal hearing, but it gives a deaf person a representation of sounds that helps to make speech understandable.

The procedure typically takes about an hour per ear and involves implanting a small internal computer into the bone behind the ear. The surgeon opens the mastoid bone behind the outer ear to access the cochlea (inner ear) and slides an electrode cable into the inner ear.

Patients typically go home the day of surgery. About four - five weeks after surgery, when swelling has subsided, patients have the device 'turned on' and programmed during an office visit. Further adjustments are made over several weeks. Once set, subsequent adjustments are infrequent. The external portion of the device may be upgraded every three to five years as technology advances and internal equipment is expected to last a lifetime. However, as technological advances are made over the next decade or so, internal device upgrades may be desirable to some patients.

The risk of complications from cochlear implant surgery is quite low, but may include dizziness, infection, facial nerve weakness and temporary loss of or unusual taste. In extremely rare cases a sinus infection or pneumonia can lead to an infection around the implant causing meningitis, but vaccinations to protect against this make the risk very low.

More than 700 cochlear implant surgeries have been performed at Tampa General Hospital making it the busiest cochlear implant center in the region.

Visit: http://www.or-live.com/tgh/1849 now to learn more and view a program preview. VNR: http://www.or-live.com/rams/tag-1849-mkw-q.ram