Patients admitted with necrotising otitis externa have increased six-fold in the last 10 years. The prognosis is variable and dependent on co-existing morbidities. Charlston Comorbidity Index (CCI) is a weighted comorbidity scoring method, based on the presence or absence of...
Hearing loss (HL) is the third leading chronic health condition among older adults. Most studies investigating HL and cognition have been performed in high-income countries. Risk factors for dementia (eg. hypertension, midlife hearing loss, obesity and physical inactivity) are more...
Speech in noise testing provides real-life assessments of hearing that conventional pure tones cannot deliver. Rania Alkahtani describes the development of such a test for Arabic speaking children. It also has the additional benefit of being able to be delivered...
‘Speech sounds great, but music isn’t right’ is a common complaint from hearing aid users across the globe. In this article, Marshall Chasin, one of the most published audiologists on the subject of music and hearing, outlines why patients with...
There is a point in all innovation projects where the clinician has exhausted their knowledge and needs expert help to create a prototype. Mark Prince, Design Engineer, discusses this phase of the project and how engineers’ analytical thinking brings a...
Technology is moving our speciality forward very rapidly in all domains, but none more so than in rhinology. David Whitehead looks at current and future trends. How will a surgeon justify their position in a team where artificial intelligence (AI)...
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’....
Brian Taylor provides an interesting perspective on market segmentation of the hearing impaired population, and how as clinicians and entrepreneurs we need to be able to recognise the different approaches that are required to address the large percentage of the...
Research suggests that over 50% of patients presenting with hyperacusis also present with some form of psychiatric disorder. With this in mind, Dr Aazh outlines what tools clinicians can use to screen for psychological disorders and what path to take...
Interactions between auditory and somatosensory pathways can lead to interesting tinnitus experiences which can be very bothersome. Dr Sarah Michiels describes her pioneering work in this area, and the possibilities of physiotherapy based therapy. Background Somatic (also called somatosensory) tinnitus...
Covering over 70% of the earth’s surface and reaching known depths of 11km, the world’s oceans tick the box for an extreme environment. What do we know of the impact of environmental noise on the deep-sea dwellers of this habitat?...
Auditory brainstem implants were first used in adults with NF2. They have more recently become a technology option for children but what is the evidence to support this choice? This article discusses the evidence so far. Auditory brainstem implant is...