Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Embarks on the Auditory Brainstem Implant

On September 3, 2019, one of the most sophisticated and challenging auditory system surgeries, Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI), was successfully performed by the faculty members of Shiraz University of Medical Sciencs (SUMS), Dr. Basir Hashemi and Dr. Arash Safariyan, in cooperation with a German surgeon, Prof. Behr, for the first time. SUMS is now considered as the second center in Iran with the hands-on and empirical knowledge of this advanced operation.

Dr. Basir Hashemi, head of SUMS Cochlear Implant Center, maintained that assortment of medical treatments and approaches as cochlear implant surgery and the ABI operation are practiced to rehabilitate patients with hearing deficiencies. To assist patients with hearing impairments, over 1600 cochlear implants have been operated by SUMS cochlear implant surgery team since 2003, he added.

As Dr. Hashemi elaborated, the ABI operation is appropriate for those with labyrinth, cochlea, non-functioning auditory nerve, or auditory nerve impairments who resemble no impairment of the central auditory nervous system. The patients were capable of hearing and speaking before losing their hearing due to, for instance, accident, brain tumor, or surgery on their auditory nerve. These patients, moreover, are non-respondent to cochlear implant since the auditory nerve is annihilated or irreversibly damaged. Thus, through the direct stimulation of the brainstem via the electrodes which are fixed to the cochlear nucleus of the brainstem in lieu of the auditory nerve pathways, the patients’ hearing can be restored. Dr. Hashemi concluded that the first ABI operation at SUMS affiliated hospital, Shahid Chamran Hospital, was performed on a 30-year-old patient suffering from a few years of hearing loss.