ZAGREB, Feb 12 (Hina) - Doctors at a Zagreb clinic have recently for the first time performed an operation during which a hearing aid was inserted behind the right ear of a 28-year old female patient. The patient had been operated on
January 25 for a brain tumour. After the tumour was removed, the patient lost hearing. The doctors inserted the device behind her right ear, and the device is connected with an electrode to the centre for hearing, said the head of the Zagreb Clinic for Otolaryngology, Prof. Dr. Boris Pegan. The patient can still not hear since the outer part of the device is yet to be inserted. Experts from Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland and the Czech Republic participated, along with Croatian experts, in the operation. They donated the hearing aid device and operated free of charge. Although it is hard to expect that the patient will regain a 100% hearing capacity, she will have good hea
ZAGREB, Feb 12 (Hina) - Doctors at a Zagreb clinic have recently for
the first time performed an operation during which a hearing aid was
inserted behind the right ear of a 28-year old female patient.
The patient had been operated on January 25 for a brain tumour.
After the tumour was removed, the patient lost hearing.
The doctors inserted the device behind her right ear, and the device
is connected with an electrode to the centre for hearing, said the
head of the Zagreb Clinic for Otolaryngology, Prof. Dr. Boris
Pegan.
The patient can still not hear since the outer part of the device is
yet to be inserted.
Experts from Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland and the Czech
Republic participated, along with Croatian experts, in the
operation. They donated the hearing aid device and operated free of
charge.
Although it is hard to expect that the patient will regain a 100%
hearing capacity, she will have good hearing and speaking abilities
after a recuperation period and adjustment to the device.
The final results of the operation will be known in two years.
Croatian reporters today also had the opportunity to meet the
patient and see a video recording of the whole procedure.
During the six-hour-long operation, doctors used the most modern
equipment to make a bed in which the device has been inserted
permanently.
Operations like this one are performed in several neuro-centers in
the United States and Germany, and this is the first time such a
procedure was performed in Croatia. Doctors estimate that the
operation would cost DM55,000.
There are about one hundred people in the world who have undergone
this procedure. The first case of insertion of a hearing aid was
performed in the USA 20 years ago.
(hina) jn rml