Kangra: Dr Sanjay Sachdeva Director and Head of the Department of ENT, and Head and Neck Surgery, Max Group of Hospitals said here on Sunday that Cochlear implant is a boon for mute children if this surgery is carried among children in the begining.
Most of the children remain undiagnosed or are diagnosed very late so regular medical checkup can diagnose it early and corrective surgery can be undertaken for a better quality of life.
He was speaking after he completed a two day free ENT camp, organized by Vivekananda Kendra, Kanaya Kumari branch Kangra, a spiritually oriented service mission, and Ripudaman Charitable Trust.
He said that the main factors which assure success include right candidate selection, right evaluation and good quality of implant in addition to surgical technique.
Another factor that ensures success is post-op rehabilitation, speech therapy to ensure that child starts hearing and speaking. Dr Sachdeva said that the incidence of deafness among the newborn children is one of 1000. He said that Government of India has started early intervention in the form of otoacoustic emission as a screening test to be done for every hospital born child, though it is strictly not being followed. He said that it is done only for high risk cases i.e. children who had significant jaundice/cried late after birth etc.
He said that Cochlear implant was making children to form the productive part of the society as they live like normal children. He said that few states in the country which include Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh had started taking responsibility of funding these implants for their state children.
Dr Sanjay Sachdeva further said that in Himachal during the two years before Covid 19, he has conducted nearly a dozen such cochlear implant surgeries here through the local branch of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanya Kumari free of cost with surprising results. He said that it started with a girl child Shruti from Bhawarna with nice result and continued till date among other mute children free of charges. He said that cochlear
implant costs more than Rs. 8.25 lakhs including all charges but is being provided free. He said that these surgeries were proving boon for mute children here.
He said that nearly 100 patients visited the OPD at Gopal Bagh Gurikhari and 37 audiometry tests were performed on Friday June 3, 2022. Today on June 4, 2022 five super specialized surgeries were performed by Dr Sanjay Sachdeva at City Hospital Kangra where Hospital and theater facilities were provided free by Dr Pradeep Makkar the founder of the hospital as a good will gesture .
Those who were operated upon on Sunday included Usha Devi, 30, Resident of Malan, Veena Devi, 48, Kangra, Veenashi Devi, 24, Sunita Chamba, Pummy Koul,52 ,Dari and Ramesh Kumar, 61 Kangra.