About two out of 100 patients presenting with asymmetric hearing and unilateral tinnitus have acoustic neuroma. The traditional method in which these patients first attend a clinician and then undergo screening through an MRI, can be expensive and prolong the...
This retrospective study on 85 adult obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients provides further interesting information for sleep surgeons. These patients were all investigated with polysomnography (PSG) and drug induced sleep endoscopy (DISE). They all then underwent a simple uvulopalatoplasty with...
Videofluoroscopy is one of the main instrumental tools used to assess swallowing biomechanics and physiology. In the UK, it is mainly within the remit of speech and language therapists (SLT) to perform videoswallows but there is considerable variability in both...
Parkinson’s disease is predominantly considered a motor disorder, impacting speech, particularly voice volume, amongst other physical functions. Language and cognitive difficulties, such as difficulties in word finding and social pragmatics are also a key feature of Parkinson’s disease. Given the...
The UK has an ageing population. Seven percent of the over 80s population have bilateral severe to profound hearing loss which can lead to associated negative outcomes (social isolation, depression and reduced quality of life). Cochlear implantation (CI) can successfully...
The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption of NHS services. This was compounded by patients’ reluctance to attend hospitals at that time. How this affected the presentation of patients with head and neck cancer is the subject of this study. Head...
Head and neck cancer is the eighth most common malignancy and numbers are increasing. This has led to increasing number of suspected cancer referrals which, with imposition of the 28-day Faster Diagnosis Standard implemented in 2020, has further burdened the...
For a profession proud of its adherence to an evidence base, medicine has been remarkably slow to acknowledge and to act on the evidence which underpins the value of good leadership to patients and the healthcare system. Mr Robert Francis...
March 2020 introduced the concept of lockdown to audiology services in the NHS, prompting a rethink of how to best provide hearing care. In this issue, we hear from Hanna Jeffery, a Clinical Scientist working at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital...
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...
In this article we hear about the Franki Oliver’s journey from clinical practice in audiology to the third sector. Hi! I’m Franki and I’m the audiology manager at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), a charity supporting people...
Working in partnership with a local main contractor, QuietStar recently finished a complete ISO-compliant paediatric audiology test room suite for St Helen’s House in Ipswich, UK, part of the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.