The Cochlear Implant, a great advance in recent years in medicine, allows solving problems such as profound neurosensorial deafness by means of implants. It can be implanted from the age of eight, which allows children destined not to hear to be able to do so.
Last Saturday, February 25, was celebrated the International Cochlear Implant Day, an enormous advance in modern medicine, which by technical means helps to alleviate bilateral sensorineural profound deafness.
The first Multichannel Cochlear Implant that was placed in Spain was carried out by Dr. Francisco Antolí-Candela Cano, who placed an implant in the patient’s left ear, which meant a revolution in terms of hearing benefits, since the patient regained her normal life, hearing her family and friends again, and was even able to play the piano again. Although the first device caused skin problems, a few years later it was replaced by a more advanced mechanism.
Today, it is estimated that there are around 13,500 transplant recipients in Spain, 40% of whom are children and 60% adults. For children, the Cochlear Implant is a great development, since they were destined not to be able to hear and to have to communicate in a non-oral way.
Thus, nowadays it is considered that any person suffering from severe hypoacusis whose situation does not improve with hearing aids is a candidate for a Cochlear Implant.
The ENT-IOM Institute (Antolí-Candela Group) has a Unit specialized in Hearing Implants, which works in a multidisciplinary way with a team formed by otolaryngologists, audioprethetists, audiologists specialized in implants, psychologists and speech therapists, who carry out the previous assessment of the candidate to determine the suitability of the implantation.