{"id":834,"date":"2019-04-23T10:51:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T10:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mft.nhs.uk\/rmch\/?p=834"},"modified":"2025-10-23T10:46:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T10:46:35","slug":"pioneering-new-brain-surgery-at-rmch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mft.nhs.uk\/rmch\/pioneering-new-brain-surgery-at-rmch\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS England to fund pioneering new brain surgery at Royal Manchester Children\u2019s Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Pioneering brain surgery that allows children who are deaf to experience the sensation of hearing for the first time is being made routinely available, NHS England has announced.<\/p>\n<p>Two highly specialist teams at hospitals based at Royal Manchester Children\u2019s Hospital, part of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and Guys and St Thomas\u2019 NHS Foundation Trust in London will perform Auditory Brainstem Implants (ABIs) surgery for children who are deaf across the country.<\/p>\n<p>The surgery is for children who are profoundly deaf, aged five or under, who are unable to use conventional hearing aids or implants because their inner ear (cochlea) or auditory nerve did not develop properly.<\/p>\n<p>The national service is being led by neurosurgeon, Mr Scott Rutherford, from MFT, and Professor Dan Jiang, from Guys and St Thomas\u2019 NHS Foundation Trust, who will work with a dedicated team of highly specialised surgeons, audiologists and speech and language therapists.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mr Scott Rutherford, neurosurgeon with the Manchester University Foundation Trust team, said:<\/strong> \u201cManchester University NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to be chosen as one of only two centres in the UK to offer auditory brainstem implants as a treatment for children born without hearing nerves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA commitment by NHS England to fund the service for children will secure its future and allow more families to benefit from our clinical expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The highly complex procedure involves inserting a device directly into the brain to stimulate hearing pathways, bypassing the cochlea and auditory nerve that have not developed properly.<\/p>\n<p>A few children have already been able to benefit from this pioneering surgery including four-year-old Theo Sankson, from Ormskirk, who has even started to speak after having the pioneering procedure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Theo\u2019s story<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Theo Sankson was diagnosed as being profoundly deaf as part of the newborn hearing screening programme. At eight months old it was discovered he didn\u2019t have any auditory nerves, so he was not eligible for cochlear implants.<\/p>\n<p>Theo was two when he had an ABI at Royal Manchester Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/av\/embed\/p0773v13\/48011807\" width=\"400\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Theo\u2019s mum Imelda said:<\/strong> \u201cAfter discovering Theo couldn\u2019t have a cochlear Implant, all we could think about was how would he hear a fire alarm, how could we protect him from danger?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s now two years since Theo\u2019s device was activated and he can hear me calling him from upstairs. His first word was \u201cmore\u201d and his second was\u201d mummy\u201d \u2013 something I never thought I would hear. Every day he uses his voice more and more and now loves to try and sing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are eternally grateful to the surgical and audiology teams in Manchester who have given our little boy the ability to hear and speak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is estimated that about 15 children per year would be assessed for auditory brainstem implantation and that about nine would go on to have the surgery, which costs around \u00a360,000 per patient.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Professor Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, said: <\/strong>\u201cThis truly life-changing surgery, which allows youngsters to hear their parents\u2019 voices for the first time, will now be available across England for children who are deaf who have no other options.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we put the NHS Long Term Plan into practice, the health service will continue to make the very latest, innovative treatments, like this, available to patients across the country along with world class care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the implant has been inserted, long-term support is crucial to help children learn to listen and understand new signals from their implant.\u00a0 This may be as simple as recognising their own name being called, but it may also involve understanding simple phrases.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Health Secretary Matt Hancock said:\u00a0<\/strong>&#8220;I\u2019m in awe of the extraordinary medical advances made possible by the brilliant specialists working in our NHS.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This surgery has the power to transform the futures of young children who are deaf and give fresh hope to more families.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hearing transforms children\u2019s lives. I\u2019m delighted at this progress &#8211; all part of our NHS Long Term Plan which will secure the NHS for the future.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Pioneering brain surgery that allows children who are deaf to experience the sensation of hearing for the first time is being made routinely available, NHS England has announced. Two highly specialist teams at hospitals based at Royal Manchester Children\u2019s Hospital, part of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and Guys and St Thomas\u2019 NHS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[42,43,14,44,15],"class_list":["post-834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-deaf","tag-implant","tag-manchester","tag-neurosurgery","tag-nhs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NHS England to fund pioneering new brain surgery at Royal Manchester Children\u2019s Hospital - Royal Manchester Children&#039;s Hospital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mft.nhs.uk\/rmch\/pioneering-new-brain-surgery-at-rmch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NHS England to fund pioneering new brain surgery at Royal Manchester Children\u2019s Hospital - Royal Manchester Children&#039;s Hospital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Pioneering brain surgery that allows children who are deaf to experience the sensation of hearing for the first time is being made routinely available, NHS England has announced. 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