Guayaquil, April 14, 2023
The Hospital del Niño Dr. Francisco de Icaza Bustamante (HFIB), an establishment of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), this April 17, 2023, will begin the days of surgeries for the placement of cochlear implants that will help improve the quality of life of children with hearing loss.
Cochlear implants are electronic devices that help give a person with severe hearing problems a sensation of sound. The implants go around the affected parts of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. The implants have two devices, one internal and one external. The internal one is placed by surgery and the external one behind the ear.
The first phase of the surgical days will be from April 17 to 21 at the HFIB facilities. Due to the complexity of the interventions, it is planned to perform two to three surgeries per day.
The patients who will benefit from these surgeries are between one and five years of age. They have previously been assessed by otolaryngology and audiology specialists at the health home.
The diagnoses presented by the little ones are pre-lingual and post-lingual, that is, they have lost their hearing without acquiring language or they have lost their hearing, but have already acquired language.
During surgery, telemetry will be performed, a study that verifies the functioning of the ear and the auditory nerve. This allows us to know how effective the implant will be.
Between 20 and 30 days after placement of the internal device, activation of the external processor is performed.
There is a high rate of positive response to this procedure. The patient must comply with auditory-verbal rehabilitation to obtain optimal results.
A cochlear implant, which includes surgery and devices, has an approximate value of 35 thousand dollars in private health units. While the MSP invests in people with hearing disabilities and provides the service for free.
Cochlear implant placement has been performed at the Children’s Hospital since 2009.
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