Introduction Profound childhood hearing loss has a huge impact on early communication skills, the acquisition of spoken language, and hence on educational attainments and employment prospects. Over the centuries, educators of the deaf attempted to overcome the challenge by using...
When multi-channel cochlear implants (CIs) were first introduced in the 1980s, their use was restricted to people who derived no benefit from conventional amplification. Over the past three decades, however, the criteria for CIs has been relaxed considerably, and it...
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,...
Family-centred care for young children is a commonly used but frequently under-appreciated approach in audiology. Prof Moodie discusses how we can take positive action to improve our approach to families in ways that make a meaningful difference in their lives....
When a person says that sound causes them pain, how can we understand this, and determine what processes are involved? Bryan Pollard navigates us through what is presently known. Pain has long been underrepresented – and often, completely overlooked –...
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....
Irace, Chern and Golub propose causal and non-causal mechanisms for the links between hearing loss and dementia, concluding with a discussion of several proactive measures available to help preserve neurocognitive health in older adults with hearing loss. What is age-related...
Cell therapies could offer a way to repair damage to the auditory system and reverse many types of hearing loss. This article looks at the progress being made.
In the World Report on Hearing, launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 3 March 2021, the use of person-centred care is highly recommended. In this article, we learn about the history of person-centred healthcare and hearing care. But...
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...
A critical question when any new technique is proposed is ‘does it work?’ In this article Daniele Marchioni and Davide Soloperto discuss the success rates of endoscopic ear surgery for cholesteatoma. Introduction Surgical management of cholesteatoma is still a controversial...