Journal Reviews
Hearing preservation and device benefit following implantation of short or hybrid electrodes
Hybrid or short electrodes have increasingly been used in the literature in order to combine electrical with hearing-aid stimulation. However, hearing preservation of the residual low-frequencies are of utmost importance in this attempt. The present study compared hearing preservation and...
New diagnostic criteria for Ménière’s disease – an international consensus
Most readers are familiar with the American Academy diagnostic criteria for Ménière’s disease (MD) but a significant minority will be aware of other criteria from Japan and Korea. This new effort is a collaboration between these three bodies and the...
Bone anchored implant stability predicted one week after implantation
Bone conduction (BC) devices can now be implanted as a single stage procedure with minimal soft tissue thinning to reduce the complications in the surrounding skin. The question of optimal loading time has to my mind not been answered. Here...
Hearing protection and hearing loss
This study examined the interaction of hearing protection for noise reduction and hearing loss with speech recognition performance. Forty five subjects with four hearing loss profiles were fitted with two different level dependent hearing protectors (circumaural and inserts) in two...
Bone anchored hearing devices in very young children
This paper presents results of BC devices in very young children and helps inform an honest discussion of risks / benefit with prospective parents. The authors of this article from Starship Children’s Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand have a series of...
Leptin has no role in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss
This paper from Turkey claims to be the first study dealing with the relationship between leptin and idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL). I remember leptin being a fashionable topic in obesity research, when leptin deficiency was thought to be...
Experience of the Sophono transcutaneous bone conduction system
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...
Hearing aid standards and test systems
Hearing aids are the most used management / rehabilitation option for people with hearing loss. Generally, hearing instrument manufacturers perform the hearing aid performance measurements and provide its specification in terms of functionality. However, it is also common for government...
Hearing loss in the young and self-esteem
How can those involved in the care of children with hearing loss identify those at risk of low self-esteem? This study provides some guidance. Overall differences from hearing peers in terms of communication skills, physical appearance and social maturity place...
Review: Cochlear Implantation in SSD?
Contra lateral routing of signals (CROS) using hearing aids and bone conduction devices has been the conventionally accepted modality for the treatment of single sided hearing impairment. The CROS hearing aid has been found to improve speech understanding in noise,...
Cochlear implantation in Ménière’s disease
This was a Belgian retrospective study of seven patients with Ménière’s disease who underwent cochlear implantation. All patients had bilateral severe to profound hearing loss and all met AAO-HNS criteria for Ménière’s disease. Follow-up for patients ranged from six months...
Frequency Compression – is there a benefit?
The goal of this study was to investigate whether frequency compression (FC) hearing aids provide more benefit than conventional hearing aids. Twelve experienced hearing aid users 65-84 years of age with moderate to severe high frequency hearing loss wore the...
