Journal Reviews
Correlation between middle ear and mastoid volumes with results of type 1 paediatric tympanoplasty
This is a retrospective study of 45 paediatric patients, aged between eight and 18 years, who underwent Type 1 cartilage graft tympanoplasty using conchal cartilage. Middle ear and mastoid volumes of these children were correlated with anatomical and functional outcomes...
How interaural level differences differ between children with bilateral cochlear implants and their normally-hearing peers
A group in the Netherlands investigated interaural level differences (ILDs) in children who were bilaterally implanted with cochlear implants (CIs) and compared their performance to their normally-hearing peers. ILDs are used to localise sound and rely on the high-frequency cues....
Balloon Eustachian tuboplasty – is it time to start doing it in children?
Given the potential applications for balloon Eustachian tuboplasty (BET) in children, its uptake in most centres has been slow. The reasons for this are multifactorial. There are technical issues – the feasibility of obtaining the correct size balloon and manoeuvring...
Implications of tonsillectomy in very young children
This is a comprehensive study comprising 157 children who underwent tonsillectomy below the age of two years, mainly for sleep-disordered breathing (86.6%) and recurrent tonsillitis (7%). With relatively recent understanding of OSAS, the indications for tonsillectomy in children under two...
The basis of auditory processing disorder: what can we learn from corticals?
Auditory processing disorder (APD) is a poorly understood, heterogenous and surprisingly common condition. It manifests as a perceptual difficulty in centrally processing auditory information. Diagnosis is usually based on a variety of behavioural tests involving verbal and non-verbal assessments. In...
Paediatric idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss
This Turkish retrospective study looked at the radiological and clinical characteristics, prognostic factors and treatment outcomes in children diagnosed with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL). Forty-eight children were included over an eight-year period. Complete recovery (CR) was achieved in...
Identification of congenital hearing loss in Saudi Arabia
It has long been recognised that timely recognition of congenital hearing loss allows for the morbidity of hearing loss to be minimised. Due to the difficulties with identifying hearing loss in babies, combined with readily available screening technologies, many countries...
Tonsillectomy in or out?
Although tonsillectomy is the most common surgical act performed in ENT practice, there is still some concern about the safety of outpatient or day surgery scheduling, especially in adults. Although this has been common practice in many departments for some...
Differences between paediatric and adult cholesteatomas
An understanding of the differences between adult and paediatric cholesteatomas should be helpful in more effective management of the disease in children. In this study, the authors focused their comparison between paediatric and adult cholesteatomas to the operative findings, rates...
The snotty child?
This article is interesting for those of us who see children regularly in secondary care but rarely see them with chronic rhinosinusitis. The authors remind the reader of the EPOS guidelines for diagnosis of CRS in children: two or more...
Tinnitus in children
This is a review article about the management of tinnitus in children. In the end the authors came up with just three papers that made the grade. Maybe the most interesting finding was from Vianni in the JLO in 1989....
Sound localisation after bilateral cochlear implantation
Limited information is known about the localisation skills of paediatric cochlear implant patients who were good hearing aid users before their hearing deteriorated. As localisation is a skill often associated with good natural hearing, there is a worry that implants...
