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Effective and profitable provision of paediatric audiology care in the private sector

Similar to other specialty areas of hearing healthcare, paediatric audiology is a potential net loss for a private-sector, for-profit, business. Given the time-intensive needs of patients with cochlear implants, tinnitus and those who are under the age of 18 years...

Thyroid ultrasound elastography: does nodule stiffness predict malignancy?

Approximately 50% of the general population has a thyroid nodule while 5-15% of these are malignant [1]. A major challenge, therefore, is how to detect the malignant nodules for appropriate, timely treatment and avoid unnecessary, costly investigations for the remainder....

Discovery in the genetics of complex disease: Otitis media

Otitis media (OM), a common disease of childhood, is considered to be a complex trait with multiple genetic and environmental factors expected to contribute to a child’s risk of developing recurrent acute OM (rAOM; ≥3 episodes in 6 months or...

Endoscopic middle ear surgery for cholesteatoma treatment

A critical question when any new technique is proposed is ‘does it work?’ In this article Daniele Marchioni and Davide Soloperto discuss the success rates of endoscopic ear surgery for cholesteatoma. Introduction Surgical management of cholesteatoma is still a controversial...

Improving cochlear-implant performance in the short- and medium-term

Can bespoke cochlear implant programming strategies reduce the variability seen in patient performance with an implant? Bob Carlyon reviews the current situation and gives us a glimpse of the future. Although many cochlear implant (CI) patients understand speech well in...

Auditory brainstem implant results in adults and children

Background The auditory brainstem implant (ABI) has been developed from cochlear implant (CI) technology and is indicated for people who have anatomical abnormalities of the cochlea or dysfunction of the auditory nerve. The majority of people who have received an...

Utilisation of cortical auditory evoked potentials in the paediatric population

Introduction Early identification of hearing loss in infants followed by prompt intervention is well established as the key to maximising the development of speech, language and psychosocial skills. Many countries have already adopted early hearing detection and intervention (EDHI) programs,...

Branchio Oto Renal syndrome

Branchio Oto Renal Syndrome (BOR) is an autosomal dominant disorder with branchial, otologic and renal manifestations. The presence of clinical signs varies among and within affected families. Three causative genes for BOR syndrome have been reported thus far: EYA1, SIX1...

Hidden hearing loss in humans

Awareness of cochlear synaptopathy (‘hidden hearing loss’) is growing. Chris Plack gives us an introduction to the condition, defining it and reviewing recent research in humans and animals with respect to noise exposure. The main cause of hearing loss is...

EVOTION: Big data supporting public health policies for hearing loss

Big Data? Biosensors, smart hearing aids and smartphones? The EVOTION Project has it all and more! What will this project tell us about the future of hearing management? Doris-Eva Bamiou, Giorgos Dritsakis and Louisa Murdin, members of the EVOTION team,...

How should we detect and identify deficit-specific auditory processing disorders?

The human central auditory nervous system (CANS) is complex and highly dependent upon attention and cognitive brain regions. Profs David Moore and Harvey Dillon discuss novel assessment approaches to clarify auditory contributions to listening difficulties in children. How can we...

Multifrequency tympanometry

There are many good reasons to start using multifrequency tympanometry as opposed to a traditional, single 226Hz probe tone. Here, Leigh Martin of Interacoustics discusses the uses and benefits. Tympanometry is a core test in the audiologist’s test battery. In...