[Lost in translation-an investigation of listening effort and performance in cochlear implant users in first and foreign language settings].

Background And Objective: Speech comprehension in a foreign language under noise conditions presents an increased cognitive demand. For multilingual patients with cochlear implants (PwCI), this poses a particular challenge, as audiological routine diagnostics are typically conducted in the language of the clinical environment. This study investigates speech understanding in noise as well as the subjectively perceived listening effort in PwCI compared to normal-hearing (NH) individuals under both native and nonnative language conditions.

A pathogen-detection's odyssey in a case of skull base osteomyelitis: Land ahoy!

Background: Skull base osteomyelitis (SBO) is a severe disease not only because of its rapid progression and its high mortality: diagnosis and treatment are often protracted and in more than 30% of cases no causative pathogen can be detected. SBO is usually preceded by immunodeficiency, which is why opportunistic infections caused by atypical pathogens must also be taken into consideration. In consideration of the different possible entities, an interdisciplinary approach with surgical debridement, pathological sampling, microbiological testing and antimicrobiological therapy is indispensable.

The Accuracy of Physicians' Quantitative Estimates.

Background: Doctors often describe sizes by comparison with everyday objects, e.g., a pinhead-sized tympanic defect or a dehiscence the size of a penny.

Incorporating an Intelligent Tutoring System Into a Game-Based Auditory Rehabilitation Training for Adult Cochlear Implant Recipients: Algorithm Development and Validation.

Background: Cochlear implants are implanted hearing devices; instead of amplifying sounds like common hearing aids, this technology delivers preprocessed sound information directly to the hearing (ie, auditory) nerves. After surgery and the first cochlear implant activation, patients must practice interpreting the new auditory sensations, especially for language comprehension. This rehabilitation process is accompanied by hearing therapy through face-to-face training with a therapist, self-directed training, and computer-based auditory training.

Neuromodulation Systems in the Setting of Cochlear Implant Treatment Based on Case Reports and Literature Review.

Objectives: Cochlear implants are an established and proved method for auditory rehabilitation. In addition, neuromodulation systems for treating severe movement and pain disorders are gaining importance. To date, there is limited information regarding the concurrent use of the various implanted systems and potential electromagnetic interferences.

Cochlear Implantation in Single-Sided Deafness and Asymmetric Hearing Loss: 12 Months Follow-up Results of a European Multicenter Evaluation.

People with single-sided deafness (SSD) or asymmetric hearing loss (AHL) have particular difficulty understanding speech in noisy listening situations and in sound localization. The objective of this multicenter study is to evaluate the effect of a cochlear implant (CI) in adults with single-sided deafness (SSD) or asymmetric hearing loss (AHL), particularly regarding sound localization and speech intelligibility with additional interest in electric-acoustic pitch matching. A prospective longitudinal study at 7 European tertiary referral centers was conducted including 19 SSD and 16 AHL subjects undergoing cochlear implantation.

[Concept and implementation of an adaptive digital hearing training system for cochlear implant aftercare].

Background And Objective: Within the context of an interdisciplinary research project, we created a cutting-edge prototype of an adaptive digital auditory training system designed for cochlear implant (CI) users. By leveraging the evidence-centered design (ECD) framework, we integrated a dynamic difficulty adjustment feature that tailors the experience to the unique performance capabilities of each individual user.

Methods: The ECD provides a conceptual design framework suitable for complex assessments of competence and dynamic performance.

Toward an interoperable, intraoperative situation recognition system via process modeling, execution, and control using the standards BPMN and CMMN.

Purpose: For the modeling, execution, and control of complex, non-standardized intraoperative processes, a modeling language is needed that reflects the variability of interventions. As the established Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) reaches its limits in terms of flexibility, the Case Management Model and Notation (CMMN) was considered as it addresses weakly structured processes.

Methods: To analyze the suitability of the modeling languages, BPMN and CMMN models of a Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy and Cochlea Implantation were derived and integrated into a situation recognition workflow.

-Associated Multiple Synostoses Syndrome Type 3 in a Multigenerational Family.

Multiple synostoses syndrome (OMIM: #186500, #610017, #612961, #617898) is a genetically heterogeneous group of autosomal dominant diseases characterized by abnormal bone unions. The joint fusions frequently involve the hands, feet, elbows or vertebrae. Pathogenic variants in have been associated with multiple synostoses syndrome type 3 (SYNS3).

Continuous Feature-Based Tracking of the Inner Ear for Robot-Assisted Microsurgery.

Robotic systems for surgery of the inner ear must enable highly precise movement in relation to the patient. To allow for a suitable collaboration between surgeon and robot, these systems should not interrupt the surgical workflow and integrate well in existing processes. As the surgical microscope is a standard tool, present in almost every microsurgical intervention and due to it being in close proximity to the situs, it is predestined to be extended by assistive robotic systems.

Evolution and Stagnation of Image Guidance for Surgery in the Lateral Skull: A Systematic Review 1989-2020.

Despite three decades of pre-clinical and clinical research into image guidance solutions as a more accurate and less invasive alternative for instrument and anatomy localization, translation into routine clinical practice for surgery in the lateral skull has not yet happened. The aim of this review is to identify challenges that need to be solved in order to provide image guidance solutions that are safe and beneficial for use during lateral skull surgery and to synthesize factors that facilitate the development of such solutions. Literature search was conducted PubMed using terms relating to image guidance and the lateral skull.

Retrospective in silico evaluation of optimized preoperative planning for temporal bone surgery.

Purpose: Robot-assisted surgery at the temporal bone utilizing a flexible drilling unit would allow safer access to clinical targets such as the cochlea or the internal auditory canal by navigating along nonlinear trajectories. One key sub-step for clinical realization of such a procedure is automated preoperative surgical planning that incorporates both segmentation of risk structures and optimized trajectory planning.

Methods: We automatically segment risk structures using 3D U-Nets with probabilistic active shape models.

Accuracy of Electrode Position in Sphenopalatine Ganglion Stimulation in Correlation With Clinical Efficacy.

Introduction: Sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) stimulation is an efficient treatment for cluster headache. The target for the SPG microstimulator in the pterygopalatine fossa lies between the vidian canal and foramen rotundum, ideally two contacts should be placed in this area. However, placement according to the manufacturers recommendations is frequently not possible.

i3PosNet: instrument pose estimation from X-ray in temporal bone surgery.

Purpose: Accurate estimation of the position and orientation (pose) of surgical instruments is crucial for delicate minimally invasive temporal bone surgery. Current techniques lack in accuracy and/or line-of-sight constraints (conventional tracking systems) or expose the patient to prohibitive ionizing radiation (intra-operative CT). A possible solution is to capture the instrument with a c-arm at irregular intervals and recover the pose from the image.

Patient quality of life after vestibular schwannoma removal: possibilities and limits to measuring different domains of patients' wellbeing.

Purpose: Since the 1980s, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been recognized in the assessment of medical treatment. To determine the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of vestibular schwannoma (VS) patients, a specific questionnaire that has been validated in different languages is essential.

Methods: The Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) and PANQOL questionnaires in German were evaluated in patients after removal of a VS via the translabyrinthine approach.

Automatic Registration for Navigation at the Anterior and Lateral Skull Base.

Objective: Navigation systems create a connection between imaging data and intraoperative situs, allowing the surgeon to consistently determine the location of instruments and patient anatomy during the surgical procedure. The best results regarding the target registration error (measurement uncertainty) are normally demonstrated using fiducials. This study aimed at investigating a new registration strategy for an electromagnetic navigation device.

High-precision evaluation of electromagnetic tracking.

Purpose: Navigation in high-precision minimally invasive surgery (HP-MIS) demands high tracking accuracy in the absence of line of sight (LOS). Currently, no tracking technology can satisfy this requirement. Electromagnetic tracking (EMT) is the best tracking paradigm in the absence of LOS despite limited accuracy and robustness.

Impact of room acoustic parameters on speech and music perception among participants with cochlear implants.

Objectives: Besides numerous other factors, listening experience with cochlear implants is substantially impaired by room acoustics. Even for persons without hearing impairment, the perception of auditory scenes, for example, concerning speech intelligibility, acoustic quality or audibility, is considerably influenced by room acoustics. For CI users, complex listening environments are usually associated with heavy losses.

Toward an automatic preoperative pipeline for image-guided temporal bone surgery.

Purpose: Minimally invasive surgery is often built upon a time-consuming preoperative step consisting of segmentation and trajectory planning. At the temporal bone, a complete automation of these two tasks might lead to faster interventions and more reproducible results, benefiting clinical workflow and patient health.

Methods: We propose an automatic segmentation and trajectory planning pipeline for image-guided interventions at the temporal bone.

Cochlear Implantation in Patients With Single-sided Deafness After the Translabyrinthine Resection of the Vestibular Schwannoma-Presented at the Annual Meeting of ADANO 2016 in Berlin.

Objective: To evaluate effectiveness of the cochlear implant (CI) to facilitate single-sided deafness (SSD) rehabilitation following translabyrinthine resection of the vestibular schwannoma.

Study Design: Retrospective patient review.

Setting: Single center, University hospital.

Robotic cochlear implantation: feasibility of a multiport approach in an ex vivo model.

Purpose: A recent clinical trial has shown the feasibility of robotic cochlear implantation. The electrode was inserted through the robotically drilled tunnel and an additional access through the external auditory canal was created to provide for means of visualization and manipulation. To obviate the need for this additional access, the utilization of multiple robotically drilled tunnels targeting the round window has been proposed.

Quality of Life After Translabyrinthine Vestibular Schwannoma Resection-Reliability of the German PANQOL Questionnaire.

Objective: To quantify the postoperative quality of life (QOL) of patients after translabyrinthine surgery for vestibular schwannoma (VS) using the German version of the Penn acoustic neuroma quality-of-life questionnaire (PANQOL) in a university hospital.

Methods: The PANQOL questionnaire was administered to 72 patients who were treated in our department with translabyrinthine surgery for VS between January 2007 and January 2017. Descriptive evaluations of results were performed in addition to analyses of the reliability and convergent validity of the results and a subgroup analysis.

[Hearing rehabilitation with the cochlea implant following translabyrinthine CPA tumor removal ?].

We present a quality analysis of 10 patients with an individual treatment trial for a simultaneous or consecutive cochlea implantation after translabyrinthine removal of a neurinoma at the cerebellopontine angle. The results show that most of the patients benefit from the cochlea implantation after unilateral deafness. Through a careful surgical preparation technique at the inner ear canal and its surroundings the morphological and functional integrity of the neurovascular structures can be guaranteed.