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Quo vadis FESS? Future directions in functional endoscopic sinus surgery

Endoscopic sinus surgery is now so ubiquitous that it is hard to imagine a time when it was not part of our clinical practice. Valentin Tomazic takes a look at its early development and looks ahead to endoscopic sinus surgery...

Intratympanic steroids in Ménière's disease: what’s the evidence?

The days of drastic surgery for Ménière's disease are long gone. We know that intratympanic injections can deliver high doses of medication to the inner ear with minimal discomfort and minimal risk. But how do we choose from the myriad...

The role of objective measures and imaging to optimise cochlear implant outcomes

Should we be using new or novel objective measures and imaging to assist with our cochlear implant patients? Debi Vickers and Shak Saeed describe current clinical techniques and present advances that have the potential to optimise outcomes. Introduction It is...

Achieving consensus on candidacy for cochlear implantation

The British Cochlear Implant Group’s candidacy working group recently ran a national exercise, working towards a consensus on candidacy for cochlear implantation in the UK. Padraig Kitterick and Debi Vickers were instrumental in this exercise, and in the article below,...

Multi-channel cochlear implants: past, present and future

Forty years since the first multi-channel devices were implanted, who better than Ingeborg Hochmair, who has been a key figure throughout their evolution, to offer her thoughts on the past, present and future of multi-channel cochlear implants? Read on for...

Tone deafness and perfect pitch

If you think you are tone deaf, do not despair. Singing tuition should help but it is probably too late to hope to develop perfect pitch. Consultant otolaryngologist and keen musician, Chris Aldren, discusses the complex and fascinating subject of...

William Hunter’s work on the anatomy of the human ear

The Hunterian Society offers an annual award for an essay and presentation on a subject of relevance to John or William Hunter, or medicine in the 18th Century. This article is based on Emma Stapleton’s 2014 winning essay, which was...

Upper airway endoscopy: achieving a balanced service whilst minimising the conflict of sustainability

Nasal endoscopes present a unique challenge in balancing sustainability and practicality. Both disposable and reusable scopes may have distinct roles in modern practice. Flexible endoscopy of the upper aerodigestive tract is an essential technique that facilitates detailed assessment of the...

The ear-brain connection in cochlear implant users: learning to listen again

While the cochlear implant (CI) has been a tremendous success in restoring hearing to deaf individuals, the implantation outcome still varies across CI users [1]. Some demographic factors, such as duration of deafness, and peripheral factors, such as electrode placement,...

EVOTION: Big data supporting public health policies for hearing loss

Big Data? Biosensors, smart hearing aids and smartphones? The EVOTION Project has it all and more! What will this project tell us about the future of hearing management? Doris-Eva Bamiou, Giorgos Dritsakis and Louisa Murdin, members of the EVOTION team,...

Auditory brainstem implant results in adults and children

Background The auditory brainstem implant (ABI) has been developed from cochlear implant (CI) technology and is indicated for people who have anatomical abnormalities of the cochlea or dysfunction of the auditory nerve. The majority of people who have received an...

Cochlear implant referral: how can we do better?

Considerable progress has been made over the last few years in improving access to cochlear implantation (CI) in the UK for children and adults with severe to profound deafness. But we are still not treating children early enough, and we...