The World Hearing Center hosted the 19th WAW Window Approach Workshop on 12-14 January 2015. There were 43 participants of the WAW Conference, and 13 of them took part in the practical-otosurgical training. They were the representatives of the largest teaching hospital in Iraq – Baghdad Medical City at the Medical University in Baghdad. Other participants were doctors from Tajikistan and Kirgizstan.

Program of WAW workshops includes demonstration surgeries presenting different hearing implant procedures performed by Prof. H. Skarzynski with the team of the Oto-rhino-laryngology Surgery Clinic of the Institute. Participating in such surgeries enables surgeons to observe the work of an experienced operator and team and, what is particularly important in the case of developing countries, to observe the modern surgical room equipment. Theoretical training includes also lectures of experts from the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing on diagnostics and assessment of patients before implantation, advanced surgical techniques and newest hearing implant technologies.

An important part of WAW workshops is the hands-on training, when participants assisted by the instructors, learn different implantation procedures. Exercises are performed on temporal bone specimens, 3D printer models and virtual models. The key skill taught and trained during these workshops is insertion of a cochlear implant electrode in the least invasive way through the round window of the cochlea, enabling preservation of residual hearing and intact anatomical structures.