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Paediatric ENT trauma

Managing trauma in children often strikes terror in doctors who do not deal with children regularly. Kate Stephenson explains the approach to a child who has suffered ENT trauma and specific things to look for in children. ENT injuries are...

Middle ear reconstruction in children: why, when and how

Every ear in every child is different. Rob Nash discusses the rationale behind reconstructive ear surgery in children and his philosophy on timing and techniques of reconstruction. It is rare for middle ear pathologies to be life threatening. Indeed, it...

Endolymphatic sac surgery: controversial procedure for the treatment of Ménière’s disease

Landmark Paper: Thomsen J, Bretlau P, Tos M, Johnsen NJ. Ménière’s disease: endolymphatic sac decompression compared with sham (placebo) decompression. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1981;374:820-30. Of all of the chapters in the Landmark Papers book, the chapter that discussed...

Cognitive spare capacity: what is it and why does it matter?

Cognition refers to thinking and memory. So why would cognition be a useful concept for ENTs and audiologists? Audition provides our main channel of communication and when we speak to each other, we want to exchange thoughts and remember what...

Cognitive effort and listening in everyday life

Dining with family members, amongst the clinking of dishes and glasses, the sounds of conversations and laughter, the husband, a user of hearing aids, misses his wife’s request to bring another bottle of wine. After a third try, the wife,...

A parent’s journey: beyond the diagnosis

Tamsin Coates lives in Wallesey, UK and talks about coming to terms with the difficulties and joys of having two deaf children. Here she explains about the early days and the impact of their diagnosis upon the family. Thinking back...

Neural plasticity and aural rehabilitation

Neural plasticity refers to an ability of the brain and central nervous system to change their structure and function or their reorganisation in response to environmental cues, experience, learning, behaviour, injury and / or diseases and treatments. Neural plasticity is...

Alternative listening devices: reaching the places hearing aids don’t

The stigma surrounding hearing aids means that many people who would benefit from wearing them are put off from doing so. Alternative listening devices could provide the solution to this. David Maidment discusses these devices, their effectiveness and the impact...

Central auditory changes in SNHL

Robert Harrison discusses some of the most obvious ways in which cochlear hearing loss has central consequences. It is convenient to classify hearing loss according to the most obvious site of lesion, for example, conductive, cochlear, retro-cochlear, or central hearing...

Unanswered questions in adult ototoxicity associated with platinum-based chemotherapy

Do the potential side-effects on hearing and tinnitus need to be a ‘necessary evil’ of platinum-based chemotherapy? How strong is our evidence base when offering advice to patients and fellow clinicians? David Baguley and his team from the University of...

Thyroid dysfunction and Meniere’s disease: is there a relationship?

The set of symptoms described as Meniere’s disease may have several causative factors. Timothy Hain and Patthida Maroongroge look for a relationship in the literature between Meniere’s disease and hypothyroidism. Meniere’s disease (MD) affects around two in 1000 people and...