You searched for "disability"

1142 results found

Hearing aid microphone considerations for binaural hearing: When to select natural or aggressive directional microphone technology?

Should I use omni-directional or fixed directionality? Does it make a difference if I’m fitting a unilateral hearing loss? Mark Laureyns discusses the current evidence on directional microphones and provides practical advice on the systems and when to employ them....

Tinnitus treatment device from concept to commercialisation

Innovation in the field of healthcare is fraught with nearly insurmountable challenges. Bringing a novel product to the market requires a new (patentable) idea that can be reduced to practice, manufactured at scale, and can pass all regulatory barriers. In...

Communication Disorders: a combined discipline of audiology and speech and language pathology – the Israeli perspective

Liat Kishon-Rabin provides an excellent summary of audiology training in Israel, encapsulating the development of audiology services in the country. Readers will be intrigued by the systematic approach taken to its development, and its pairing with speech and language pathology....

Aided cortical assessment: uses in a paediatric hearing implant centre

When can an aided cortical assessment help decision making in a child’s hearing journey? In this article, the author demonstrates the application using an enlightening case study approach. A device, be it a conventional hearing aid or hearing implant, ideally,...

Current update on vestibular and balance disorders in children

Vestibular and balance disorders in children with hearing loss often go unrecognised. This article describes the significant impact such disorders have on the various aspects of children’s development. Vestibular and balance disorders occur in the paediatric population but can go...

Hyposalivation: a review of current and future treatments

Hyposalivation remains a stubbornly difficult condition to treat, but novel therapies may not be far away. Saliva has many essential functions, including aiding digestion and swallowing, lubrication, maintaining tooth integrity and antibacterial activity. When patients experience reduced saliva production (hyposalivation),...

Using SNOT-22 to predict revision sinus cases

A simple way of predicting which patients will require revision endoscopic surgery does not yet exist. This study, which is a prospective, longitudinal cohort study, part of the UK national audit, aims to predict this by using a relatively simple,...

Electrocochleography and speech-perception in cochlear implant (CI) patients

It is difficult to predict the speech perception outcomes of cochlear implantation. Previous studies showed that total response electrocochleography (ECochG-TR) may explain the variance in CI performance better than biographic, audiometric, and surgical factors combined. The authors’ objectives were to...

How can we be SMART with virtual consultations?

At the beginning of 2020, video conferencing and phone consultations accounted for less than 1% of all consultations. Now it is probably 70%. Whilst there are many remote consultation solutions available, Tina Marshall describes what the ideal solution should look...

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...

Hearing aids to improve balance in the elderly?

Patients with hearing loss have been found to be more likely to develop dementia. Hearing loss is also associated with poor balance and higher risk of falls, especially in the elderly population. There is increasing evidence that treating hearing loss...

Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness: a functional neuro-otologic disorder

Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) is a neuro-otological disorder that is the most common cause of chronic vestibular syndrome. It is not a purely structural or psychiatric disease but a functional disorder. The authors reviewed the literature to summarise the diagnostic...