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OBITUARY: Remembering Thomas J Balkany 1948 - 2025

Helen Cullington, our Specialty Editor – Audiology (implantables), pays tribute to a pioneer. Back in 1996 – having worked as a cochlear implant audiologist for three years in the UK – I felt ready for a new challenge. I faxed(!)...

Smart cochlear device: how biosensors could revolutionise hearing care

Smart cochlear implants could monitor inner ear health, deliver drugs and adapt in real time, merging biosensing, microfluidics and personalised hearing care. From passive hearing aids to smart implants Hearing technology has advanced dramatically over the last few decades, yet...

The changing landscape of thyroid and parathyroid surgery

How has clinical practice in the management of thyroid and parathyroid disease has evolved in recent years? I perform very few head & neck operations where the patient tells me just one week following surgery that they ‘feel much better’....

Current practice in cochlear implantation

From candidacy to surgery and rehabilitation, cochlear implant practice is evolving, with new technologies shaping outcomes for patients worldwide. Image courtesy of MED-EL. Cochlear implants restore a sense of hearing in the profoundly deaf, representing the most successful neuroprostheses available,...

The role of the respiratory physician in sleep medicine

ENT surgeons may feel that they are the first point of referral for the majority of patients with snoring and possible obstructive sleep apnoea, but in reality a significant number of patients with sleep-disordered breathing (of any cause) are seen...

Optical cochlear implants: recent progress toward light-based hearing restoration

Optical cochlear implants combine optogenetics and light-based hardware to overcome limits of electrical CIs, promising sharper frequency resolution and more natural hearing. Cochlear implants (CIs) are among the most successful neuroprosthetic devices in modern medicine, restoring speech perception to hundreds...

Continuous intraoperative neural monitoring and thyroid surgery

Continuous intraoperative neural monitoring enhances thyroid surgery safety, helping predict and prevent recurrent laryngeal nerve injury in real time. Recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury with resultant vocal cord paralysis (VCP) can have a significant impact on patient quality of life...

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...

Can we prevent chronic rhinosinusitis?

The old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ is considered by Professor Hopkins in respect to chronic rhinosinusitis, a condition affecting around 10% of the adult population and associated with huge impact on quality of life and economic cost. A...

Update on the development of an implantable vestibular prosthesis

Cochlear implants have revolutionised the management of profound hearing loss. Might vestibular implants be the future for the treatment of bilateral vestibular failure? James Johnston and Neil Donnelly explore. The vestibular system is highly complex, integrating visual, labyrinthine and proprioceptive...