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Endoscopic ear surgery in children

The benefits of endoscopes in otologic surgery, which have become increasingly widely appreciated in recent years, are very well suited to the management of paediatric middle ear disease. Although one might imagine that the smaller ear canal of a child...

The power of mentoring

What is a mentor, and what are the benefits for mentee and mentor? Emma Stapleton and Rohma Abrar, mentor and mentee respectively, explain. The term ‘mentor’ is derived from Homer’s Odyssey, in which the goddess Athena, disguised as Mentor, guides...

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...

The emergence of in-office ventilation tubes for the treatment of otitis media in children

In-office tympanostomy tube systems offer a quicker, anaesthesia-free alternative to traditional surgery for children, with promising outcomes and reduced costs. Tympanostomy tube or grommet insertion is the most common surgery performed on children worldwide. Whilst a relatively short and straightforward...

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...

Long-term outcomes of children and young people with cochlear implants

Introduction Profound childhood hearing loss has a huge impact on early communication skills, the acquisition of spoken language, and hence on educational attainments and employment prospects. Over the centuries, educators of the deaf attempted to overcome the challenge by using...

The ear-brain connection: the role of cognition in neural speech processing

Audiologists and other hearing healthcare professionals have become increasingly interested in the importance of cognitive function in the assessment and management of hearing loss, especially in light of evidence suggesting a link between hearing loss and cognitive decline in older...

Music is noise

Marshall Chasin recaps what we know acoustically about music and noise, and discusses the potentially damaging levels of music, how temporary threshold shift (TTS) is not necessarily temporary and gives us some considerations for protective devices for musicians. Most of...

Looking at musculoskeletal disorders in audiology

Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the leading cause of sickness absence from work, work disability and loss of productivity across all European Union member states. Isla Beausire is a working audiologist with a personal and professional interest in this subject...

How should we detect and identify deficit-specific auditory processing disorders?

The human central auditory nervous system (CANS) is complex and highly dependent upon attention and cognitive brain regions. Profs David Moore and Harvey Dillon discuss novel assessment approaches to clarify auditory contributions to listening difficulties in children. How can we...

Middle ear muscle disorders: presentation, diagnosis and management

Patients often report symptoms relating to disorders of the middle ear muscles. Prof Bance gives us an overview of the anatomy and function, as well as guides our diagnosis and management. The middle ear muscles (MEMs) are a mystery, both...