Recently a three and half year old boy has been operated upon by a team of doctors at Apollo Hospital, Dhaka led by Consultant ENT Surgeon Dr Sanjeev Gupta. A prosthetic device, called cochlear implant, was implanted. This operation has brought back hearing to this child.

A cochlear implant is a medical option for individuals with severe to profound hearing loss in both ears, specially for the patients who get little or no benefit with hearing aids.

Cochlear implant systems convert everyday sounds into coded electrical impulses. These electrical pulses stimulate the hearing nerve, and the brain interprets them as sound. As the brain receives sound information very quickly, sounds are heard as they occur.

Cochlear implants can offer a wide range of benefits, including hearing speech, environmental sounds and music. Unlike a hearing aid, it does not make sound louder or clearer. Instead, the device bypasses damaged parts of the auditory system and directly stimulates the nerve of hearing, allowing individuals who are deaf to receive sound.

Some individuals with implants can now communicate without lip-reading or signing, and some can communicate over the telephone.

In short Cochlear implant is the only hope for the totally deaf. Cochlear implants permit implant recipients to reintegrate with the hearing world.