Media Advisory/Photo Opportunity - Sick Kids celebrates 500th cochlear implant during Speech and Hearing Awareness Month

From: Canada NewsWire (press release) - Canada - May 2, 2005

TORONTO, May 2 /CNW/ - To mark May as Speech and Hearing Awareness Month, the Cochlear Implant Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) is celebrating on Tuesday, May 3, the gift of sound for patients who have received cochlear implants. Since the Sick Kids Cochlear Implant Program began in 1990, over 500 children have received implants at the hospital, establishing Sick Kids as the largest paediatric centre for cochlear implantation in North America.

Sick Kids performs over 70 implants a year in children ranging in age from 7 months to 18 years. Patients are treated by an interdisciplinary team of otolaryngologists, audiologists, auditory-verbal therapists, speech language pathologists, nurses and a social worker who work with a patient from the assessment to post-implant stages.

The Cochlear Implant Program is internationally recognized as a leading clinical and research facility for cochlear implants in children. Since 1998, research in the Cochlear Implant Laboratory at the Sick Kids Research Institute has focused on trying to determine the genetic causes of hearing loss and how it can be prevented in children, as well as exploring psychoacoustics (the science of how people interpret sound) in children with cochlear implants.

In the last year, the lab has also started investigating the effects of bilateral cochlear implants, where a child receives an implant in both ears. Researchers are studying whether enhanced speech understanding and an improved ability for a child to identify the location of a sound may be achieved through the addition of a second cochlear implant.

Different from a hearing aid, which amplifies sound, a cochlear implant bypasses the work of the non-functioning inner ear. It consists of three parts: an electrode array surgically placed in the cochlea; a transmitter and microphone worn behind the ear; and a speech processor, which looks like a small Walkman and is carried in the same way. The microphone picks up sounds in the environment and sends them to the speech processor which translates the sound into electrical pulses. The pulses travel to the transmitter which sends the signal across the skin to the implant. The electrodes stimulate the auditory nerve, sending sound information to the brain for interpretation.

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
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WHAT: Staff and patients will celebrate the 500th cochlear implant performed at Sick Kids. Speakers will include Dr. Blake Papsin, director of the Cochlear Implant Program, inaugural holder of the Cochlear Americas Chair in Auditory Development and otolaryngologist at Sick Kids, and cochlear implant patients, Kate McKenzie and Gurvinder Toor. Fifteen-month old Olivia Reilly, the 500th patient to receive a cochlear implant, will assist Dr. Papsin in a cake-cutting ceremony.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 3 at 10 a.m.

WHERE: The Greenery, Main Floor, Atrium (at the back of the cafeteria) The Hospital for Sick Children 170 Elizabeth St.

The Hospital for Sick Children, affiliated with the University of Toronto, is Canada's most research-intensive hospital and the largest centre dedicated to improving children's health in the country. Its mission is to provide the best in family-centred, compassionate care, to lead in scientific and clinical advancement, and to prepare the next generation of leaders in child health.

For further information: Lisa Lipkin, Public Affairs, The Hospital for Sick Children, Tel: (416) 813-6380

© 2005 CNW Group Ltd.