A campaign for surgical treatment of deafness is underway in Tomsk.

A large-scale campaign for the surgical treatment of deafness is taking place at the Tomsk branch of the Scientific Center of Otolaryngology of the Russian Ministry of Health. Patients from the Altai Territory, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Chita regions and Buryatia have taken part in it. Specialists are performing unique operations, which are financed by the federal budget. On the operating table is a four-year-old boy with congenital deafness. An implant is being implanted in him. This is already the twelfth patient. Surgeons perform several operations a day. In total, about 50 people need to be operated on. This is the number of cochlear implants received by the Tomsk branch of the otolaryngology center under the federal program. Each of them costs one million rubles, but they will be implanted in patients free of charge. Alexander Starokha, professor, director of the Tomsk branch of the Research Institute of Otolaryngology: “We operate on children with congenital deafness or deafness acquired as a result of infection, when the auditory nerve is damaged. Or adults who have had meningitis. Our task is to rehabilitate.” And in the wards of Children's Hospital No. 4 are those who have had surgery. Nastya from Kemerovo was one of the first to undergo surgery. Five years of the child's deafness seem to be behind her, her mother sighs with relief. Olga Likhtik, mother: “She's freaking out, she doesn't understand me, she's nervous. Now, I hope, everything will be alright.” Only three cities in Russia perform such high-tech operations. To date, about 300 have been performed. Every second operation was performed by surgeon Isa Mukhammedov from the Moscow Otolaryngology Center. He is also taking part in the campaign today. Isa Mukhammedov, surgeon at the Otolaryngology Research Institute: “Surgery is the first stage of rehabilitation, it is a surgical moment. Besides this, there will be a long rehabilitation process, it depends on the wishes of the patient and his relatives. They will speak if they wish.” Cochlear implants, which will give children the ability to hear and speak, will last 75 years, according to their manufacturers. Source: novosibirsk.rfn.ru