Dr Valerie Looi has dedicated her academic career to investigating music perception in people who have cochlear implants, and more recently, the potential of music training for improving their music perception. This article outlines current research relating to music perception...
It is well known that oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a symptom arising from many different aetiologies or disease conditions and that it is a significant morbidity affecting people’s quality of life. Establishing the prevalence of OD is complicated by the...
Matthew Smith discusses a project looking at outcomes of acute otitis externa interventions, and how, going forward, the INTEGRATE team are working with patients to develop outcome measures. Acute otitis externa (AOE) is one of the most common conditions of...
In February 2003, I met a patient with severe bilateral vestibular loss due to gentamicin toxicity, and I felt disheartened. Despite the fantastic diagnostic vestibular lab we had at Maastricht University Hospital, what could I truly offer her? She had...
As our understanding of the pathophysiology of CRS evolves, so do our treatment strategies. It is accepted that in many cases, the main role of surgery is to allow better penetration of topical therapies to the sinus cavities. What, then,...
As unusual as it may sound, some people have great difficulty burping. We hear of one approach to tackling this problem. Retrograde cricopharyngeal dysfunction (RCPD) is a condition presenting with inability to burp, resulting in gaseous distension of the digestive...
The development of medical devices for infants and children lags significantly behind the development of devices for adults. While in the United States the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set up incentives for developing child age-specific pharmaceuticals, there is...
Medical historian, Laura Dawes, discusses how Irene and Alexander Ewing were instrumental in shaping paediatric audiology in the first half of the 20th century. Irene and Alexander Ewing were the power couple of audiology in the UK in the mid-20th...
All traditional surgical treatments for bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) paralysis are essentially a balance between maximising airway patency and ensuring adequate phonation / airway protection. This paper highlights the potential role of botulinum toxin (Botox) injection into the cricothyroid...
This article is a frank discussion of the authors’ experience implanting these devices. The principle of the device is surgical implantation of a bilobed magnet within a bony well in the cranium (similar position to BAHA). The implant is a...
‘New normal’ is another phrase that has become synonymous with this pandemic. In this article, consideration for ‘low-touch’ and ‘no touch’ audiological pathways are described for adoption as the ‘new normal’ for hearing healthcare. The COVID-19 crisis has ushered in...
Melanie Lough is a clinical audiologist-turned-research audiologist and, in this article, we hear about how she applies her transferable skills gained in audiology to her current role and future aspirations. Career background My route into audiology was unconventional to say...