The UK-based cochlear implantation specialist G M Donogue, University of Nottingham, will lead a team of local ENT surgeons and perform the operations on the children, aged between 2 and 11.

The cost of the implant ranges between Rs 5 and 9 lakh. Started by Dr Donogue in the country a decade ago, around 1,000 persons might have undergone this surgery so far.

Donogue, who is here to attend the International Cochlear Implant and Advanced Otology & Hands on Audiology and a three-day workshop on temporal bone cochlestomy, told reporters that though the implant was expensive, the life-time benefits for the hearing impaired would be high. “Being a micro surgery, additional training is required,” he said.

Dr Mohan Kameswaran of Madras ENT Research Foundation said that some 50,000 surgeries are done world over every year but India’s share is only 1 percent.

The awareness in Andhra Pradesh is less compared to other cities and the Central Government has recently reduced the customs and excise duties to reduce the cost of implantation. Nationalised banks are ready to give loans to those who undergo surgery. An estimated 1 million children require cochlear implantation.

Hospital superintendent Dr K Dwarakanath said that the parents of the five children who are being operated purchased the implants and the doctors are conducting the surgery free of cost.

The seminar is being organised by the state unit of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India.

Around 250 delegates from India and other countries are attending the workshop, its organising secretary Dr V Ramakrishnaiah said.

By Andhra Pradesh