RSCM performs its first cochlear implant surgery

JAKARTA: A team of medical specialists at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta have successfully conducted their first cochlear implant, hospital management said Friday.

The team performed the one-and-a-half hour operation on a nine-year-old boy on Tuesday. The boy had been deaf since he was born.

"The hospital now has facilities to perform such an expensive operation," head of the ear, nose, and throat department, Helmi, told reporters.

The surgery costs around Rp 350 million (US$34,500), including the price of the implant.

A cochlear implant is a surgically inserted electronic instrument that allows a patient suffering from severe deafness, that can not be treated with a hearing aid, to hear.

Many private hospitals in the city began offering the surgery in 2001. At least 24,000,000 Indonesians, or 0.1 percent of the population, suffer from hearing problems. - JP