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Do intratympanic injections require local anaesthesia?

Intratympanic injections are becoming increasingly acceptable in the management of Meniere’s disease, tinnitus and sudden hearing loss. This is because they avoid the need for hospitalisation and can be performed as low-cost outpatient procedures. It is traditional to freeze the...

Literature review of experience with the BAHA Attract implant

The authors undertook a literature review for reports on patients who underwent BAHA Attract implantation. Of the 497 PubMed articles, 10 studies met their inclusion criteria. All the studies published were observational studies. There were no randomised control trials. The...

CI and CP

Quality of life improvement is one of the main goals of cochlear implantation. Mobile phones are now a standard daily tool. For many implanted patients, a mobile phone is used for sending short messages rather than for voice calls. This...

Cartilage myringoplasty to treat patulous eustachian tube dysfunction

Patulous eustachian tube (PET) dysfunction, where the eustachian tube is abnormally opened at rest, is a notoriously difficult condition to treat. Symptoms can mimic symptoms of superior semicircular canal dehiscence: autophony, aural fullness, hyperacusis and breathing synchronous tinnitus. Treatment has...

Which factors affect music involvement in implanted children’s everyday life?

During the last few years, cochlear implantation research has included music. Processing strategies and rehabilitation teams are now interested in music appreciation by implantees, as speech perception and production are no longer the only issues or targets. The present study...

Surgery of vestibular schwannomas with peritumoral oedema

This is an interesting retrospective study evaluating peritumoral oedema on magnetic resonance images and correlating it with the intra-operative tumour characteristics and outcome. The study results found that vestibular schwannomas with peritumoral oedema were associated with greater incidence of hypervascularity...

Paediatric nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Between 11 and 18% of nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC) occur in the paediatric age group but there are no specific management guidelines for this age group. Tunisia is a region with an intermediate incidence of NPC, the authors studied 40 cases...

Awareness of alternative techniques in cochlear implantation

The use of alternative techniques for cochlear implantation is indicated in unusual cases where the standard procedure would not be suitable. The authors of this study highlight the various reasons as to why an alternative technique might be sought, and...

What is balloon eustachian tuboplasty (BET)?

Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) is the result of a combination of factors that interfere with the mucosal functional or cartilaginous structures. Failure to open the eustachian tubes can cause aural pain, pressure in the ears, muffled hearing, crackling/popping sounds in...

Radiosurgery for large vestibular schwannomas

The authors conducted a retrospective study of patients with large Koos grade 4 vestibular schwannomas undergoing gamma knife radiosurgery. A total of 68 patients with tumour size greater than 4 cm3 with baseline serviceable 60% hearing who received 12 Gray...

Can intraoperative electrically evoked auditory brainstem responses predict the outcome of cochlear implantation?

Electrophysiology during cochlear implant surgery remains an issue of debate among the various centres. In the present study, the latencies and quality of the eABR waveforms from 74 adult implanted patients were analysed. In addition, four children with severe cochlear...

Cochlear implanted children are more likely to have device failure if their balance function is impaired

We know that children with permanent hearing loss are more likely to have an associated balance problem. It is also thought that children with cochlear implants (CI) that fail do so because of an increased risk of falls and head...