Journal Reviews
Alcohol and hearing
Alcohol is a well-known central nervous system depressant. Individual reactions to alcohol might vary, but the connection between alcohol consumption and tolerance to loud noise or difficulties in communication in noisy environments are well-observed phenomena; for example, at evening parties....
Audiology and COVID-19
COVID-19 affected all clinical services in a very short time, including audiology. This service improvement investigation concentrated on how audiology services in the UK were impacted by the virus and how perception of tele-audiology changed. About 120 practising audiologists were...
Noise tolerance in the presence of speech
Noise is a common issue reported by people in reference to speech understanding, both for normal and hearing-impaired people. This study investigated how noise loudness, annoyance, distraction and speech interference impact noise tolerance in normal hearing people while listening to...
Cobalt hip implants and auditory-vestibular outcome
Cobalt-chromium (Co-Cr), metal-to-metal hip implants were commonly used until several side-effects were reported due to an increased level of Co and Cr metal ions in patients’ blood. Although this type of hip replacement was almost completely abandoned, there are still...
Smartphone hearing test
Our Editors’ Choice for this edition reviews an article looking at the use of a smartphone app for hearing screening. We have all had to integrate telehealth into our practice to some extent recently and this paper examines a teleaudiology...
Otosclerosis - to scan or not to scan?
In an era of insidiously reducing thresholds for investigating patients, Maxwell and colleagues pose an important question: is high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) prior to stapes surgery for otosclerosis worthwhile? Their practice typically considers HRCT for cases of suspected otosclerosis presenting...
CATE in people with dementia
Behavioural hearing tests may be difficult to perform for people with dementia. The aim of this study was to investigate if the cortical automatic threshold estimation (CATE) may be used as an alternative to the pure tone audiometry test. Six...
A new tool for assessing otoscopy skills
Medical and audiology students need to be proficient in performing otoscopy in order to undertake the routine practice required of them at work upon graduation. One significant challenge in teaching otoscopy is the lack of objective and validated assessment tools...
Surgical outcomes of myringoplasty using platelet-rich plasma
Tympanic membrane (TM) perforations can affect people’s quality of life due to recurrent infections. Management is often by surgical repair. In this study, the authors investigated the outcomes of a minimally invasive approach of patch myringoplasty using an atelocollagen sponge...
Herpes zoster and SSNHL
Some studies suggest that viral infections may increase the risk of a sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). The described longitudinal study explored whether herpes zoster may be a factor that increases the risk of SSNHL. Medical history in reference to...
Endoscopic stapes surgery
This retrospective Turkish study looked at the audiological and surgical outcomes of 40 patients who underwent endoscopic stapes surgery over a three-year period. To assess the learning curve, the patients were divided into two groups based on the date of...
Reasons for attending annual hearing aid review appointments
The aim of this study was to investigate what factors influence hearing aid users’ decision to attend or not attend an annual hearing aid review (HAR) appointment. Two separate surveys were created for attendees and non-attendees. An invitation letter was...
