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Positive practical communication skills for medics

Communication training for medical students generally focuses on communicating with unimpaired individuals. This article describes how a speech and language therapy department at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden trialled a new approach to teaching medical students. Fifty-nine undergraduate medical...

Directional microphones and speech

This study aimed to research how speech recognition, listening effort and localisation depends on hearing aids’ microphone configuration in people with moderate to severe hearing losses. Eighteen participants with sensorineural, symmetrical, moderate to severe hearing loss were tested. Participants were...

Is Gamma Knife Surgery effective for intracanalicular vestibular schwannomas?

Vestibular schwannomas (VSs) are rare, occurring in approximately five per 100,000 adults a year. In circa 8% of cases, the VS is contained within the internal auditory canal, i.e. intracanalicular (iVS). Although radiosurgery is a recognised treatment modality for VSs,...

Audiologists’ perspectives on their ability to address hearing, social and emotional adult patient needs

Authors suggest there is little evidence that hearing technology addresses patients’ emotional concerns related to their lived experience of hearing and communication difficulty. The study explores the notion of audiologic counselling and discusses the role of audiologists in supporting the...

Cognitive development in children with cochlear implants

This systematic review investigates the comparative cognitive outcomes in children using bilateral versus unilateral cochlear implants, as well as those using cochlear implants versus hearing aids. The review synthesises findings from 30 studies involving a total of 11,986 children and...

Clinical Management of Children with Cochlear Implants - Second Edition

This substantial volume is nearly 900 pages long but definitely worth the shelf space. That said, it hasn’t actually made it to a shelf since its arrival at our department as everyone who spotted it has wanted to borrow it!...

Expectations and practice

Reading this paper is reassuring. It does not appear to be groundbreaking in its results but research can be as useful, if not more so, when it consolidates knowledge and helps unify the research base. This paper focuses on those...

App-solute relief: tackling tinnitus with your smartphone

The sound experienced by individuals with tinnitus can vary to a huge extent. It can range from a mild occasional ringing to a constant, loud noise causing disruption to daily life and sleep. Reassuringly, tinnitus is rarely a sign of...

Oropharyngeal malignancies

The authors retrospectively reviewed 44 patients who underwent a combined transoral and transcervical treatment without mandibulectomy for oropharyngeal malignancy. The combined approach was performed first by a neck dissection followed by transoral excision of the lesion and reconstruction by a...

Less pain more gain: impact of prophylactic gabapentin on swallowing outcomes in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment

Patients planned for chemoradiation to the head and neck are usually advised to expect some pain and soreness during their treatment and that pain relief will be offered as and when it is required. Uncontrolled pain and mucositis affect oral...