Christmas came early for two East London women who will soon have their hearing restored, thanks to high-performance hearing implants surgically inserted into their skull bones at a private hospital on Tuesday.
Three private ear, nose, and throat specialists Tuesday pioneered a new beginning for Border-Kei Life region hospitals when they performed the group’s first-ever surgery to insert Med-El Bonebridge bone conductor implants.
Doctors John James, Mark Richardson and Paul Steyn recently received training on the theory and surgical technique of the Bonebridge implant, and on Tuesday put theory to practice for the first time.
The implant curbs hearing loss by using bone conduction to filter sound straight to the inner ear. It is the only active bone conduction implant that is placed fully under the skin through surgery. The external device, called an audio processor, receives external sound and transmits it to the internal implant. This sound is then sent to the inner ear...