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Protheses for patients with severe bilateral vestibular loss

In February 2003, I met a patient with severe bilateral vestibular loss due to gentamicin toxicity, and I felt disheartened. Despite the fantastic diagnostic vestibular lab we had at Maastricht University Hospital, what could I truly offer her? She had...

Have we reached our limits in endoscopic skull base surgery?

As being an anterior skull base surgeon becomes the aspiration of many ENT trainees, Professor Nicolai gives his personal insights into the future for this exciting subspeciality. Having been directly involved in the evolution of transnasal endscopic surgery (TES) since...

The Airway Intervention Registry: Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis (AIR: RRP) data collection

Laryngeal papillomatosis remains a frustratingly difficult condition to treat. Adam Donne and Steven Powell tells us about a collaborative project aiming to enhance patient care. The first UK Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis registry opened in April 2018 through the AIR (Airway...

Doctors’ health and wellbeing: depression in surgeons

Dr Clare Gerada and Richard Jones work for the Practitioner Health Programme (PHP), a specialist service for doctors and dentists in the London area with mental health / addiction problems (www.php.nhs.uk). Here they discuss some of their preliminary findings (specific...

Role of interventional neuroradiology in otorhinolarygological pathology 
– a brief review

Introduction Since its advent in 1964 when Dotter percutaneously dilated a stenosed femoral artery [1], interventional radiology has undergone tremendous advancement in both imaging and devices that have enabled the operator (interventional radiologist) to access very distal small vasculature and...

General overview of endoscopic ear surgery: advantages and principles

The philosophy of endoscopic ear surgery presents surgeons with a tricky concept – does the magnificent view make up for the fact I need to operate with one hand? In this article, Jane Lea discusses the advantages of operating transcanal...

The ear-brain connection in cochlear implant users: learning to listen again

While the cochlear implant (CI) has been a tremendous success in restoring hearing to deaf individuals, the implantation outcome still varies across CI users [1]. Some demographic factors, such as duration of deafness, and peripheral factors, such as electrode placement,...

The importance of hearing aid validation in infants with hearing loss

Hearing aid validation requires that speech discrimination be measured, yet there are no validated methods of measuring speech discrimination in infants and toddlers. Prof Uhler describes two related approaches that are showing promise. Speech discrimination is the gold standard for...

Direct-to-consumer hearing devices: a need to combine cosmetic appeal with device capabilities

How safe and desirable are direct-to-consumer amplification devices? A team has put a range of devices through their paces and compared them to a standard NHS hearing device. Why do most individuals who would benefit from hearing aids not try...

Cartilage conduction hearing aids: the third pathway for sound transmission and its application

Air-conduction and bone-conduction are familiar terms; now enter ‘cartilage conduction’. This new term offers a novel approach sound transmission. Hiroshi Hosoi explains the concept and proposes some future applications. The new sound pathway ‘cartilage conduction’ can provide various types of...

Alternobaric vertigo: asymmetrical vestibular function due to asymmetrical middle ear pressures (Iron Man’s archenemy)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe could certainly be deemed an ‘extreme environment’ and yet very rarely do we see the Avenger’s popping to the clinic for a check-up. Hee-Young Kim has wondered how they cope with extreme pressure changes and discusses...