François Patou discusses how the recent advances in virtual reality technologies can be used to support people living with hearing loss. He outlines some of the novel virtual reality tools that are emerging as resources to support delivery of audiology...
Hypoglossal nerve stimulation has been lauded as the great new surgical treatment panacea for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). This meta-analysis includes 12 studies with a total of 350 patients, including the five-year follow-up data from the STAR trial which was...
Hearing loss causes changes for those experiencing it and the people who share in their everyday lives, often referred to as third party disability or caregiver burden. This study emphasises the notion that this phenomenon can be considered a disability,...
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed all aspects of our lives – not least medical education. With isolation being the buzzword at the moment, the internet and social media are popular sources for official and crowd-sourced content. In this article, Samantha...
In search of courage. Well, that is how it all started. I was fairly advanced in surgical training not to mention age, when I decided to join the Territorial Army (TA). My peers, on hearing this couldn’t decide whether I...
Tympanic membrane (TM) perforations can affect people’s quality of life due to recurrent infections. Management is often by surgical repair. In this study, the authors investigated the outcomes of a minimally invasive approach of patch myringoplasty using an atelocollagen sponge...
This article covers dysphagia in older patients, which is an important topic due to an ageing population, and a relatively common symptom that we see in clinic. Dysphagia could be due to presbyphagia secondary to changes in head and neck...
After day-case septoplasty, day case thyroidectomy, now day case CSF leak repair – has the pendulum moved too far? The authors put forward a convincing case for what, only 10 years ago, would have sounded like a provocation. They quote...
The techniques for delivering drugs to the inner ear system are evolving. Jeffrey Harris considers the myths, the facts and the potential for drug delivery innovations and how they can improve tomorrow’s hearing outcomes. The inner ear’s delicate membranous structure,...
How does training the mind to be present in the here and now help patients with troublesome tinnitus? James Jackson discusses mindfulness and its place in tinnitus management. Although definitions can be more complex, tinnitus is the perception of sound...
In Quality in Audiology, Dr Brian Taylor has grappled with an aspect of audiology about which I am passionate, and in doing this he has covered a lot of ground. He starts by trying to define quality – which in...
Medical historian, Laura Dawes, discusses how Irene and Alexander Ewing were instrumental in shaping paediatric audiology in the first half of the 20th century. Irene and Alexander Ewing were the power couple of audiology in the UK in the mid-20th...