As the Local Host and Programme Director of BACO 2015, Andrew Swift is a pivotal person with local knowledge and contacts. He provides us with some top tips as to how to go about organising a successful conference. The ACC...
In February, nearly three hundred delegates gathered in the snow-covered city of Burgas on the Black Sea coast for the 7th annual congress of the Bulgarian Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology
Stapedectomy is a well-established procedure for otosclerosis but it has a small risk of a non-hearing ear, which can be devastating for patients. The development of a procedure which is safer and with a less steep learning curve for junior...
Otitis media with effusion (OME) is common in children but has a low prevalence in adults. There is some evidence to advocate middle ear inflation as a successful treatment for children with OME. This form of treatment is also recommended...
Type 1 tympanoplasty is a procedure performed to repair tympanic membrane perforations, primarily to reduce otorrhoea. This may subsequently lead to improvement of hearing. The common graft materials used are temporalis fascia and cartilage from tragus or concha. The authors...
Meniere’s disease (MD) and vestibular migraine (VM) are two conditions with overlap in their symptoms. There is often a lack of understanding regarding symptom-based differentiation between them. MD presents with episodic vertigo, fluctuating hearing loss and tinnitus. MD has been...
Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare connective tissue disease caused by a defect in collagen structure. Hearing loss is a characteristic feature of OI. It typically presents with conductive hearing loss initially, followed by a superimposed sensorineural component later in...
Middle ear implants provide a suitable alternative for some patients with a certain degree of sensorineural or mixed hearing loss, not wanting a hearing aid. Vibrant SounBridge® (VSB) middle ear implant (MEI), of Med-El®firm, is one such implant. In this...
Tympanic membrane (TM) perforations can affect people’s quality of life due to recurrent infections. Management is often by surgical repair. In this study, the authors investigated the outcomes of a minimally invasive approach of patch myringoplasty using an atelocollagen sponge...
Hearing rehabilitation in the elderly is of utmost importance as it is associated with depression and dementia in this age group. Cochlear implantation is indicated for hearing-impaired individuals who do not derive adequate benefit from conventional hearing aids. In this...
Knowledge of the facial nerve anatomy during otological surgery is crucial in avoiding an iatrogenic injury to the facial nerve. In this study, the authors investigated the anatomical relationship between the tympanic portion of the facial canal (FC) and the...
Cochlear synaptopathy is a condition in which noise interrupts the synaptic communication between sensory inner hair cells and low spontaneous rate cochlear nerve fibres. Since these nerve fibres are associated with signal coding in noisy backgrounds, their disruption leads to...