Kazakh Doctors Restore Hearing with Unique Surgery

The Regional Multidisciplinary Children’s Clinical Hospital in Karaganda, Kazakhstan has successfully carried out the region’s first cochlear implantation surgery on a child with severe deafness.

Previously, such procedures were mostly limited to major clinics in Astana, The Caspian Post reports via Kazakh media.

The groundbreaking operation was performed on a 13-year-old patient with profound hearing loss, involving leading specialists from Astana, including Arman Abilev, chief pediatric ENT of Astana’s public health department, and Almat Bekpan, head of the Head and Neck department at the University Medical Center.

Cochlear implantation work by inserting an electrode system into the cochlea, stimulating the auditory nerve directly and bypassing damaged parts of the hearing system. An external processor behind the ear captures sounds and converts them into electrical impulses.

Rehabilitation is a key part of recovery, initially lasting 10 days to a month, but speech and hearing development continues much longer, with regular device adjustments from ENT doctors, audiologists, and speech therapists.

Thanks to the surgery, children can hear, communicate, attend regular schools, and live full lives. The hospital plans to expand the program, with at least 10 more children scheduled for cochlear implantation in 2026.

This milestone follows another breakthrough in Kazakhstan’s medical field: the country’s first robot-assisted heart surgery, performed earlier at the Presidential Medical Center in Astana, which was also the first of its kind in Central Asia.