BAHA for the hearing impaired

KUALA LUMPUR – Those with hearing impairment can benefit from the Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (Baha) to facilitate communication.

Kuala Lumpur Baha chairman Prof Dr Asma Abdullah said, although the aid could help people with chronic ear infection and congenital hearing loss, the technology focused more on children with hearing problems.

“The device consists of a titanium implant, external abutment and sound processor which enhances natural bone transmission for sound to travel to the inner ear.

“We use it for children born with canal atresia, a condition where no ear canal is present, to enable them to hear,” she said during a news conference after the 2010 Baha Workshop here yesterday.

Asma, who is also head of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKMMC) department of otorhinolaryngology, listed the advantages of the aid as producing better audiometrics of between 10 and 15 decibles and not requiring prosthetic ears.

She added that the Swedish technology, developed by UKMMC, would cost RM24,000 per patient.