Journal Reviews
Vestibulo-ocular reflex and postural control in deaf children
The authors evaluated the impact of canal paresis detected by video head impulse test (vHIT) on postural control tested by platform posturography in children with sensorineural hearing loss. The study included 55 children (4-16 years old) with variable degrees of...
Role of intratympanic corticosteroid for treatment of Bell’s palsy and Ramsay Hunt syndrome
Acute peripheral facial palsy occurs annually in 30 in 1,000,000 individuals in the general population. Bell’s palsy and Ramsay Hunt syndrome account for about 70% of cases of peripheral facial palsy. They are believed to be caused by viral reactivation...
Treatment options for vestibular neuritis: systematic review and meta-analysis
Vestibular neuritis (VN) is the third most common cause of peripheral vertigo. VN has been postulated to have viral aetiology and historically it was treated with steroids, until 2011 when a Cochrane review demonstrated lack of robust evidence behind this...
Transmastoid facial nerve decompression for persistent traumatic facial nerve paralysis
Facial nerve paralysis (FNP) can occur following trauma, with a small number of these patients requiring facial nerve decompression (FND) to aid recovery. The authors shared their experience in decompressing the facial nerve for persistent severe FNP via a transmastoid...
How patients reacted to postponement of cochlear implant surgery due to COVID-19
The onset of COVID-19 in 2020 required widespread cancellation of elective surgeries, one of these being cochlear implant for profoundly deafened adults and post-lingually deafened children. Through a questionnaire, to which 23 out of 38 patients responded, this qualitative study...
Pulse synchronous tinnitus
This article reviews the most common neurosurgical causes of pulse synchronous tinnitus. Traditionally, tinnitus has been characterised as subjective vs. objective, or vascular vs. nonvascular. The authors observe that, in some cases, pulsatile tinnitus (PT) is not heard by examiners...
All you need to know about childhood hearing loss - an update
This is an excellent update on childhood hearing loss. It is a comprehensive collection of five chapters, providing a summary of a broad range of practice guidelines to inform screening, diagnosis, and management of hearing loss in children. It has...
Continuous Ambulatory Vestibular Assessment (CAVA)
This article presents initial test findings using a novel system called CAVA - Continuous Ambulatory Vestibular Assessment. Akin to the 24-hour ECG tape to identify cardiac arrhythmias, this system aims to continuously monitor the presence of a nystagmus pattern in...
Non-autologous graft material in paediatric tympanoplasty – is it as good as temporalis fascia and is it cost-effective?
This retrospective case review looks at the experience of a single unit using a variety of autologous (temporalis fascia, n=292) and non-autologous graft material, n=241 (alloderm (human dermis), biodesign (porcine submucosa, $170-$255) and tutoplast (human pericardium, $350). The average patient...
Do personal listening devices cause cochlear synaptopathy?
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...
Prognostic value of vascular ultrasonographic findings in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is often idiopathic. Although the aetiology of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) is unclear, vascular compromise is one of the frequently proposed hypotheses to explain its pathophysiology. Existing studies have shown an association between ISSNHL...
Tympanostomy tubes outcomes by tympanic quadrants- a meta-analysis
Tympanostomy tube (TT) insertion is one of the most common ENT procedures, resulting in millions of TTs being implanted per annum and occurring complications that need to be addressed. Premature TT extrusion (PTTE) is a well-recognised such complication, affecting almost...
