Search

Deafness impact on child development

Deafness can affect multiple aspects of a child’s development. This article explores these impacts and underscores the vital role audiologists play in early intervention. As an audiologist, learning and understanding the impact of deafness on a child’s development was an...

2014: Are today’s implantable devices better than conventional solutions for patients with conductive or mixed hearing loss?

Patients with conductive or mixed hearing loss become candidates for amplification when reconstructive surgery is not viable. Three common amplification options are conventional acoustic devices, such as behind-the-ear devices (BTEs), (implantable) bone-conduction devices and active middle ear implants. The goal...

The pong of poverty: George Orwell on the problem of olfactory classism

Throughout his fiction and non-fiction, George Orwell incorporated references to olfaction to invoke strong reactions in his readers. For example, in Nineteen Eighty-Four the protagonist Winston describes “the pleasant smell of [Julia’s] hair”. Orwell emphasises the invasiveness and emotional force...

The pioneers of endoscopy and the sword swallowers

Adolf Kussmaul drew inspiration from an unlikely source to further the development of endoscopy… The early pioneers of airway endoscopy and oesophagoscopy were bedevilled by two major and seemingly insurmountable problems. One was the paucity of light sources, with reliance...

Can the audiology clinic benefit from advances in virtual reality?

François Patou discusses how the recent advances in virtual reality technologies can be used to support people living with hearing loss. He outlines some of the novel virtual reality tools that are emerging as resources to support delivery of audiology...

Facing changes after surgery through portraiture

‘Facing Out: Life After Treatment for Facial Cancer’ was a two-year arts-for-health project funded by Arts Council England and The National Lottery which culminated in an exhibition at The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, in February 2019. Here, artist and project...

From aaargh to zzzzz: the ABC of paediatric anaesthesia

Andrew McTavish is one of those special breeds who not only relishes complex anaesthesia, but also does so in paediatric patients. Dealing with this group of patients requires careful planning according to accepted practice, and here he discusses some recent...

Why screen for hearing loss in adults?

Introduction Hearing loss affects over 10 million people in the UK – one in six of the population. Of over 50-year-olds 41.7% are estimated to have some form of hearing loss. This rises to 71.1% of over 70-year-olds, over half...

Neurological idiopathic disease: a shared journey for NASA and medicine

Whilst Southampton can’t really be described as an extreme environment, experiments carried out in the city have certainly been taken out of this world. Robert Marchbanks discusses one of the associations between Southampton, The International Space Station and tympanic membrane...

Radiology of referred otalgia

Otalgia is a common presenting complaint to Ear Nose and Throat Departments. Otalgia is either primary or secondary (referred) [1]. Referred otalgia is a ‘red flag’ symptom and can be a diagnostic challenge for clinicians and radiologists as the pathology...