Children and adults with severe or profound deafness will no longer be required to travel to Quebec to undergo cochlear implant surgery. The McGill University Health Center (MUHC), located in Montreal, now offers the procedure to patients living in the western part of the province. The service had long been in demand in the metropolis.
For decades, the CHU de Québec was the only hospital in the province to install cochlear implants. This device, made up of an internal part inserted under the skin behind the ear and an external part consisting of a voice processor connected to an antenna, improves hearing. And even change a life.
Patients in Montreal and other regions will no longer have to travel hundreds of kilometers to access this intervention, which takes an average of two hours.
By the end of October, an MUHC team will welcome its first potential candidates for the procedure. Audiologists and physicians will assess them. “The goal is to complete the first operations in January or February 2023,” says Colleen Timm, director of multidisciplinary services.
long awaited
Ultimately, the MUHC plans to perform approximately 154 procedures per year (103 for adults at the Royal Victoria Hospital and 51 at the Montreal Children’s Hospital). According to Colleen Timm, 60% of people who undergo cochlear implant surgery live in the western part of the province. The CHU de Québec will continue to treat patients from the eastern part of the territory.
Otorhinolaryngologist Tamara Mijovic, who practices at the MUHC, is delighted that this service is finally offered in Montreal. She is part of the team of five surgeons who will perform the procedures. “The installation of cochlear implants has become something very standard,” she explains. Most university centers make it around the world. »
This is what otolaryngologists and audiologists have been repeating for a long time. In 2018, a coalition of patients, doctors and mayors called for a cochlear implant program to be accessible in Montreal. During the election campaign of the time, the Coalition avenir Québec had undertaken to “transfer part of the interventions” to Montreal.
The project began in 2019 at the MUHC, but was slowed down by the pandemic, says Colleen Timm. Several partners are involved in the initiative: the Lethbridge-Layton-Mackay Rehabilitation Center, the Raymond-Dewar Physical Impairment Rehabilitation Center as well as physicians from the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center (CHU) and the Montreal University Hospital Center (CHUM) who will perform surgeries at the MUHC.
The CHU de Québec has also shared its expertise with the MUHC, it is noted.
A welcomed initiative
Audition Québec, which promotes the interests of the hearing impaired, welcomes the arrival of this new service at the MUHC. “It will make interventions more accessible, [ce qui est intéressant] given the length of the waiting lists, says its president Jeanne Choquette. I am in contact with people who have been waiting for two or three years. »
According to the Ministry of Health and Social Services, 123 patients are currently waiting for a cochlear implant. Those living in the western part of the province will be offered treatment at the MUHC rather than at the CHU de Québec.
Annie Huot, 43, wants to undergo cochlear implant surgery at the MUHC. She had submitted a request to the CHU de Québec in the past, but canceled it. “I live in Saint-Jérôme and I’m alone,” says the woman who has been wearing a hearing aid for five years. I have no possible help for moving. My friends and relatives work, so I can only count on myself. »
An intervention at the CHU de Québec would have required her to travel to the Capitale-Nationale several times, that is to say for the evaluation of her case, the intervention and the activation of the device, as well as than the three-day intensive implant programming.
This is what little Romeo, 3 years old, who lives in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu experienced. His mother, Alexandra Pascoal, and his father accompanied him to the CHU de Québec for the installation of his two cochlear implants, one at the age of 17 months, the other at 3 years old, in April. The family stayed at the hotel.
“It’s been good for us,” says Alexandra Pascoal. I have the ability to work with a computer from anywhere. But for someone who works in a shop or who has to be present at his place of work, it is certain that this causes a difficulty. »
The arrival of this service will make life easier for many families, including hers, she believes. “When there is a break with the implant, your child needs to be operated on again — in principle, it shouldn’t happen, but when you look at the reality, it does happen — I probably wouldn’t have to do everything again stay in Quebec and that we could do it in Montreal,” she said.