News

Cochlear implants aid another local first at Wollongong Private Hospital

May 25, 2018

Wollongong ENT specialist, Dr Ekrem Serefli, is to complete the first cochlear implant surgery in the Illawarra at Wollongong Private Hospital later today.

A cochelar implant is an electronic device that replaces the function of a damaged inner ear, allowing the patient to hear by transferring sound to the brain. Candidates for cochlear implants include patients that have suffered hearing loss due to a congenital disability or exposure to environmental factors and have received little benefit from hearing aids.

Following cochlear implant surgery, patients report an improvement in hearing and comprehension, experiencing sounds they had not heard previously and improved hearing in noisy environments.

Dr Ekrem Serefli said “As many as one in six people will experience some degree of hearing loss. It continues to be an increasingly common disability across a broad range of patient demographics due to factors such as employment in industrial settings, an aging population and a general lack of awareness as to the causes of hearing loss. The local availability of this surgery provides a convenient alternative to potentially thousands of Illawarra and Shoalhaven residents.”

Dr Serefli is a part of Hearing Implants Australia, a professional network of independent surgeons providing hearing implant care to patients in regional areas of NSW. He is currently the only ENT surgeon in the Illawarra trained to perform cochlear implants. He completed extensive implant training at under the guidance of Dr Phillip Chang, one of Sydney’s prodigious implant surgeons at St Vincent’s Clinic Otolaryngology Unit.