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St Æbbe the Younger of Coldingham, patron saint of the nose

Stories of the saints are often rather dark and unpleasant – and this is certainly the case with St Æbbe, as we hear from our roving historian, John Riddington Young. In two previous articles, we have discovered the fascinating stories...

Robert Vincent: otologie sans frontières

Chris Aldren speaks to French ear surgeon Robert Vincent who’s particularly proud of forming a global otologist network providing free resources for education and patient care worldwide. Robert Vincent Robert, who have been your otological mentors? I did my initial...

The challenges in the risk stratification of thyroid nodules and cancers: the role of molecular testing

Around the world, molecular testing is becoming more widely used to personalise the management of thyroid nodules. Thyroid nodules are relatively common. They are palpable in ~5% of the population, while high-resolution ultrasound (US) incidentally finds them in 19–68% of...

Advanced in-office awake rhinology

In-office awake rhinology transforms sinonasal care, offering safe, cost-effective, minimally invasive procedures with rapid recovery and high patient satisfaction. In recent years, the landscape of otolaryngological surgery has undergone a remarkable transformation with the advent of in-office awake surgical procedures....

Screening for hearing aid fittings – an approach for primary care

Introduction The communication difficulties related to hearing loss can lead to ‘depression, social withdrawal and problems with employment and access to information sources’ [1]. Furthermore, unmanaged hearing loss is associated with dementia, a poorer quality of life, depression, anxiety and...

How cognition influences hearing aid use

Introduction Hearing aids are designed to provide amplification for individuals with poor auditory sensitivity. Signal processing algorithms are designed and implemented in hearing aids to further enhance speech intelligibility and to improve listening comfort by attenuating unwanted background noise. Sarampalis...

Could social isolation be a factor in the link between hearing loss and dementia?

In 1802, Beethoven wrote to his brothers Carl and Johann about his hearing loss: “You men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause...

Why and what should hearing care professionals know about cognitive impairment and dementia

Good reasons to care about cognitive impairment and dementia in audiology If asking people what they fear most when getting to old age, it is cognitive decline that is named most often. This comes with the expectation of limitations in...

The role of significant others in hearing aid adoption

Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, is one of the most common conditions affecting older adults and its prevalence is found to increase with age. Over the years, amplification technology has advanced significantly from analogue to digital signal processing. Despite this,...

Combined use of a hearing aid and a cochlear implant: a case study

When multi-channel cochlear implants (CIs) were first introduced in the 1980s, their use was restricted to people who derived no benefit from conventional amplification. Over the past three decades, however, the criteria for CIs has been relaxed considerably, and it...

Dizziness: confusion, issues and considerations

Douglas L Beck gives his unique take on the difficulties involved in diagnosing dizzy patients and the importance of well-founded research acting as the basis for any diagnosis and treatment decisions. Dizziness. Uh-oh. We really have a very limited understanding...