Ear implants are found to aid profound deafness
By Associated Press, Boston Globe, 3/24/99
WASHINGTON - Most profoundly deaf children who have a device called a cochlear implant surgically installed are able to attend regular school classes within four years, a study says.The research, by Dr. John K. Niparko of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, found that 80 percent of profoundly deaf children who receive the cochlear implant were able to move out of special education and into neighborhood schools.
''Before cochlear implants, most of these children were in self-contained classrooms or they were bused to state schools for the deaf,'' Niparko said yesterday.
The 80 percent success was among children who had the surgery before age 4 and who received four years of training and experience after surgery.
All of the 20 percent who failed to progress to regular classes were children who received the implant after age 4, Niparko said. Later surgery, he said, makes it more difficult for a child to adjust to the hearing assistance device.
The study is based on long-term tracking of 35 children who received cochlear implants at Hopkins.
Nationwide, about 1 percent of cochlear implant patients never receive a significant benefit from the surgery, he said.
Cochlear implants are electronic systems that send sound-generated impulses directly to the brain, bypassing a flawed part of the inner ear. With training, patients learn to interpret these signals.
Niparko said the devices are implanted in children who are born profoundly deaf because a key part of the ear, called the cochlea, fails to function properly. Usually the failure is the result of malformed or missing structures called hair cells. These are cells that convert sound-generated vibrations into nerve impulses sent to the brain.
About one child in every thousand babies born in America suffers from profound deafness, said Niparko.
Although young children benefit most from cochlear implants, Niparko said the surgery is also offered to adults with profound deafness. He said studies show about half of all adult patients report a significant improvement in their quality of life.
Once considered experimental, cochlear implants are now offered at more than 200 US hospitals.
The average cost for implanting the $20,000 cochlear device, including surgery, hospitalization, and follow-up, is about $42,000, according to the Deafness Research Foundation.
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