Muscat: In order to effectively start the Cochlear Implant and Bone Hearing Aids Program, the University Medical City’s Ear Diseases and Surgery Team, represented by Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH), performed four cochlear implant procedures and implanted five bone-anchored hearing aids.

The program’s goal is to offer cutting-edge therapy treatments that help individuals with hearing loss live better lives. In addition to psychiatric and behavioural evaluations, anaesthetic team evaluations, the ear surgery team, audiologists, balancing experts, speech therapists, and a team from the radiology department, worked closely together to prepare for its launch.

Cochlear implantation is one of the best options for auditory rehabilitation resulting from sensorineural hearing loss, whether for adults who have lost their hearing due to damage to the nerve responsible for hearing or for children who are born with a severe degree of hearing loss, according to Dr. Khalid bin Saeed Al Zaabi, otolaryngologist and surgeon at SQUH, and Head of the Ear Diseases and Surgeries Team at the University Medical City.

He went on to say that cochlear implant surgery gives patients the chance to lead normal lives because, following rigorous rehabilitation, hearing returns to normal and youngsters develop the sense of hearing necessary to participate fully in society.

According to him, bone-anchored hearing aids are gadgets that are placed in the temporal bone of the skull and that send sound waves straight to the inner ear, bypassing the middle ear. They are applied in situations where the treating physician determines the cause of the patient’s hearing loss. They are regarded as tools that effectively help people regain their hearing and enhance their quality of life.

In addition to improving the medical education and training services received by students of the Colleges of Medicine and Health Sciences and trainee physicians affiliated with the Oman Medical Specialty Board in the Ear, Nose, and Throat Program, the University Medical City’s Ear Diseases and Surgery Team hopes to improve the quality of services offered to the community through this kind of operation.

With the start of this program, the Otorhinolaryngology and Ear Surgery team hopes to become a destination for medical education in the Sultanate of Oman by establishing a specialized unit that offers hearing rehabilitation options both domestically and abroad.