BABIES under the age of two who have lost their hearing as a result of meningitis can now have it restored by a cochlear implant. Barry McCormick of Queen鈥檚 Medical Centre, Nottingham, said that cochlear implants allow children to develop the speech and communication skills which they would otherwise lack.
鈥淲e do the implant as soon as we can because after meningitis new bone growth may block the cochlea so that we can鈥檛 get the implant in,鈥� said McCormick. 鈥淭he youngest child we have treated is just 20 months old.鈥�
Queen鈥檚 Medical Centre, which pioneered the technique in children, has carried out nearly a hundred implants. 鈥淲e can do up to forty a year but it is very labour-intensive. One full-time staff member is needed for every 10 children implanted,鈥� McCormick said. In Britain, about 300 children a year need a cochlear implant.
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The device is a tiny, multichannel tube which is inserted into the spiral of the cochlea through a hole in the side of the skull. The tube, just half a millimetre in diameter, contains up to 20 electrodes which do the job of around 30 000 nerve endings that would normally transmit sound information from the cochlea to the brain. Once the implant is in place it has to be fine-tuned to the needs of the individual child. 鈥淓ach one is as unique to the child as a fingerprint,鈥� said McCormick.
The implants, which are made in Australia, are manufactured and soldered by hand under a microscope and cost 拢12 000 each 鈥� the entire operation costs around 拢31 000. However, this expense must be weighed against the cost of caring for a totally deaf person for life, said McCormick.