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Ear wax removal: should anyone and everyone perform it?

Earwax removal is a controversial and much-debated issue in audiology. Risks and public safety call for reforms, sparking discussion on professional standards. Earwax is a natural secretion produced by the ear. It is an amalgamation of desquamous epithelial skin cells,...

Transforming adult hearing care: ANZ launches regional Living Guidelines for Adult Cochlear Implantation

Australia and New Zealand launch the first regional Living Guidelines for Adult Cochlear Implantation, setting a unified, evidence-informed framework to improve access, consistency and outcomes. The Australia and New Zealand Hearing Health Collaborative (ANZ HHC) has unveiled Living Guidelines for...

What does functional neuroimaging tell us about tinnitus?

One of the most common causes of tinnitus is noise exposure, be that either cumulative day-to-day exposure over a lifetime or experience of acute noise trauma such as a loud concert or shooting incident. Observational data indicate that up to...

Endoscopic middle ear surgery for cholesteatoma treatment

A critical question when any new technique is proposed is ‘does it work?’ In this article Daniele Marchioni and Davide Soloperto discuss the success rates of endoscopic ear surgery for cholesteatoma. Introduction Surgical management of cholesteatoma is still a controversial...

Benchmarking for innovation in healthcare ­– an approach from 
Down Under and a gap in the 
National Health Service?

Benchmarking is a process of comparison between the performance characteristics of separate, often competing, organisations intended to enable each participant to improve its own performance [1]. Often, in healthcare, benchmarking is carried out by central government departments or regional agencies...

Alternative listening devices: reaching the places hearing aids don’t

The stigma surrounding hearing aids means that many people who would benefit from wearing them are put off from doing so. Alternative listening devices could provide the solution to this. David Maidment discusses these devices, their effectiveness and the impact...

Anaesthesia under fire

Kate Prior is an anaesthetist who has, quite literally, been there, done that. In this article she manages to use words on a page to bring to life some of the conditions and challenges she faced as a member of...

Middle ear reconstruction in children: why, when and how

Every ear in every child is different. Rob Nash discusses the rationale behind reconstructive ear surgery in children and his philosophy on timing and techniques of reconstruction. It is rare for middle ear pathologies to be life threatening. Indeed, it...