By Leony R. Garcia
We live in a noisy environment and it seems there’s nothing we can do about it. Add to this is the fact that we now have all sorts of gadgets and accessories (that were unimaginable before!) that the young generation wear directly to their ears. Thus, most medical doctors assess that by age 50, these kids will either be deaf or hearing impaired.
Therefore the trend of the future will be implantable hearing devices, originally made to restore hearing to hearing impairments due to sickness or accident.
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH
November 27 and 29, 2006, marked a milestone in the history of medical technology. The first Vibrant Soundbridge (VS) and the first Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI), both implantation surgeries, were held at the Philippine General Hospital. Prof. Reyben Maigue, a music professor from the University of the Philippines, is the first Filipino recipient of the middle ear implant surgery. Vibrant Soundbridge is a surgically implantable middle ear device that directly vibrates the bones of the middle ear. Both manufacturers and hearing experts attest that the device represented an entirely new approach to the treatment of sensorineural hearing loss (nerve deafness, the most common of hearing loss cases).
For centuries, people believed that only a miracle could restore hearing to the deaf. But it was only some forty years ago that scientists first attempted to restore normal hearing to the deaf by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. A prosthetic device, called Cochlear Implant (CI), is implanted in the inner ear and restores partial hearing to profoundly deaf people. The implant is based on the idea that there are enough auditory nerve fibers left for stimulation in the vicinity of the electrodes. Once the nerve fibers are stimulated, they fire and propagate neural impulses to the brain. The brain interprets them as sounds.
When CI or VS is no longer the option, the answer could be the Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI), a prosthetic device intended to restore some degree of hearing function to persons deafened by bilateral vestibular schwannomas (tumors on both balance nerves). The ABI is designed to bypass the cochlea and the auditory nerve to transmit sound directly to the brainstem. The ABI is placed directly on the nerve center (cochlear nucleus) at the base of the brain during surgery to remove tumors. It received FDA-approval as a medical device in 2000, and is the only device that can restore limited hearing to people who have no remaining auditory nerves. The first recipient of ABI in the country was Laura Magbanua, single, working woman.
Technology has gone a long way and we must take advantage of what it can offer. Hearing implantation in the Philippines since 1997 when Med-el (Medical Electronics) brought it in, has given several children and adults hope of a bright future. To date, there are a hundred recipients of hearing implants in the country.
MED-EL donated the implantable hearing devices and invited two experienced surgeons, Italian Prof. Vittorio Colletti and Austrian Prof. Wolf-Dieter Baumgartner, to perform the operations with Dr. Charlotte Chiong, Dr. Generoso Abes, and Dr. Norberto Martinez assisting in the delicate procedure. Both operations were videotaped and shown simultaneously at the hospital to selected media and doctors. Both Maigue and Magbanua are expected to be able to hear normally within two months after surgery.
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