Great Hope to Cure Deafness

A woman became the first person in Britain to bring back hearing in both ears. She was deaf since birth.

An electronic device with two wires was implanted, One wire went into one inner ear and the other run under the scalp into the other ear.

The cochlear implant was done at Southampton General Hospital. There still has to be done some fine tuning over the following week. If the operation was a success the 44-year-old woman will have an improved bilateral hearing.

The Audiology specialist for the charity, Crysta Rolfe, stated that it seemed the device which gave hearing in both ears is better. It also saves cost on two separate implants. The benefit would be to have more people to receive bilateral implants. This was the first operation of this kind in the UK and more research will to be done.

A cochlear implant uses small electrical currents to stimulate the hearing nerve. It sends then signals to the brain and it puts into sounds. This operation was developed at the South of England Cochlear Implant Centre at University of Southampton.

Apparently some children and adults already received this device but with one in each ear.

The new device were already implanted into 40 patients in Europe.