Jos – Prof. Edmund Banwat, the Chief Medical Director, Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), on Tuesday said the institution would soon begin the training of Cochlea Implant (CI) surgeons from Nigeria and other West African countries.
Banwat told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos, Plateau, that the hospital had concluded arrangements with the West African College of Surgeons and Post-Graduate Medical College to kick-start the programme.
NAN quotes Wikipedia as defining cochlea as the sense organ that translates sound into nerve impulses to be sent to the brain. It is also is a fluid-filled, snail shaped cavern in the mastoid bone of each person’s skull behind each ear. It says that each person has two cochleas, one for each ear.
According to Banwat, the two bodies will soon accredit the programme.
“JUTH has just received a temporal bone dissection laboratory with eight stations; it is the largest in West Africa and we intend to make the best use of it to train surgeons in that aspect of medicine,” he said.
NAN reports that JUTH received the materials for the implant worth 700,000 dollars (N235 million), from Dr. Douglas Green, Managing Director, Jacksonville Hearing and Balance Institute, Centre One, Florida, in the U. S., a fortnight ago.
A Cochlea Implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing in both ears.
Cochlea implants bypass normal hearing process; they have a microphone and some electronics that reside outside the skin, generally behind the ear.
The electronics transmit a signal to an array of electrodes placed in the cochlea, which stimulate the cochlea nerve.
“The materials we have received are a state-of-the-art facility and we shall use it to help more doctors to acquire skills in Cochlea Implants.
“With more surgeons, we shall have more centres for it and be able to restore hearing to Nigerians and other West Africans already deaf,” he said.
He said that many Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeons had already indicated interests in the training, adding that the first set of trainees would be in JUTH “very soon”.
On the trainers, he said that JUTH would be inviting specialists from all over West Africa to handle specific courses as would be required in the course of the training.
“We shall invite experts to come here with their knowledge from time to time until such a time when those trained here can also train others,” he said.
Banwat, however, decried the high cost of Cochlea Implant which he put at an average of 70,000 dollars (N24 million).
“Cochlea implant is capital intensive; we shall be requiring donations from governments, NGOs and public-spirited individuals to help the patients because we have quite a lot of them.
“Already, the Plateau State Government has expressed its willingness to assist some patients undergo the surgery. We shall be expecting more of such assistance to help the deaf people to hear,” he said. (NAN)