 Otology Conference
 The 13th Annual conference of the Indian Society of Otology will be held from November 19 to 21, at the
Taj
Coromandel, Chennai. This Conference is a congregation of the leading surgeons and
doctors in the field of ear and ear-related diseases, said the Organising Chairman of the Conference, Prof K K Ramalingam.
This particular conference brings together eminent foreign ENT surgeons such as Dr. Didier Portmann from France, Dr. Luis Garcia Ibanez from Spain, Dr. Fitzgerald O'Connor from the UK, Prof. Claussen from the Netherlands and leading ENT surgeons from all over India.
Prof. Ramalingam, an eminent ENT surgeon from the KKR ENT Hospital & Research Institute, Chennai, is assisted by Prof T K Sethuraman, the Organising Secretary, and by a team of leading ENT surgeons from Chennai as part of the Organising Committee.
The Indian Society if Otology was founded in the year 1990 with aims to enhance and diffuse knowledge, to stimulate research and produce facilities for surgical training in the field of Otology, Neuro Otology and allied specialties. In the last 14 years, this Society has grown to be one of the largest such organisations not only in India but also in the South East Asia. Currently the society boasts of over 650 members.
This Conference is a three-day event and will have approximately about 400 ENT surgeons, from all over India and neighbouring countries, participating. There will be live surgical demonstration of latest techniques of ear surgery on two days. Some of these operations, which will be demonstrated, include Cochlear Implants, Surgery for Deafness, Discharging Ear and Dizziness.
The Conference will be inaugurated on 19th November by the Tamil Nadu Governor, Surjit Singh Barnala. This will be followed by scientific deliberations, lectures and surgical demonstrations for the next three days.
Salient Features of ISOCON 2004
'Prevention is better than cure'. The emphasis in the field of ear and ear related diseases is now shifting to early identification of hearing loss. There has recently been an introduction of a test called 'Oto Acoustic Emission' which is used to test the hearing of newborn children.
All over the world, by law, all newborn are tested for hearing within the first three days of life. This programme has already been introduced by the KKR ENT Hospital & Research Institute in Chennai, Ramalingam said, adding that ISOCON 2004 will aim at creating awareness on the need for this kind of Universal Hearing Screening for newborn children in a concerted manner all over the country.
The Cochlear Implant is the new miraculous development, which restores hearing in totally deaf adults and in children who are born deaf. This technology is now available only in few centers in the country. The Indian Society of Otology will aim to promote the Cochlear Implant as a treatment alternate and aim to educate and spread awareness of this wonderful new method of treatment. The latest and most advanced cochlear implant in the world is the Clarion Hi Res 90K Cochlear implant and there will be a live demonstration of this implanting during the conference, Ramalingam added.
The advances in hearing aid technology had been nothing short of spectacular in the last few years. The advance of computerized and digital hearing aids has created a change in the quality of sound available to the hearing-handicapped people, said Ravi Ramalingam. Inspite of all these advances made in hearing aid technology, there is still social stigma attached to hearing aids. This will change with the introduction of the Fully Implantable Hearing Aids. These new aids can be implanted under the skin by means of a simple operation giving the patient complete freedom, complete invisibly of the hearing aid and therefore complete loss of this social stigma, he pointed out.
Inspite of all advances in technology improving the quality of hearing in this population, the mainstay in the treatment of most ear diseases is Middle Ear Surgery. The emphasis of this Congress is to improve the quality of middle ear surgery by teaching the latest technique and improvement in ear surgery to the upcoming ENT surgeons and Post Graduates. This is the emphasis of this Congress, and live surgery will be performed to teach these ENT surgeons the finer points of middle ear surgery such as surgery for deafness ears and dizziness, he said.
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