On the definition and implications of stimulus polarity for the recording of ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials.

Objective: This study investigates the effects of mastoid stimulus polarity on the recording of bone-conducted ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (oVEMPs). The goal was to analyze how different stimulus polarities, specifically condensation and rarefaction, influence the amplitude and latency of oVEMP responses.

Methods: Monocyclic sinusoidal tone bursts at 250 Hz and 500 Hz were used to stimulate the vestibular system in 21 participants with normal hearing and normal vestibular function.

Tympanoplasty With Eustachian Tube Balloon Dilation for Chronic Inflammatory Middle Ear Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Eustachian tube balloon dilation (ETBD) is increasingly used to treat Eustachian tube (ET) dysfunction, but its benefit in patients requiring tympanoplasty for chronic inflammatory middle ear disease is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of additional ETBD on the Eustachian Tube Score (ETS), hearing outcomes, and subjective ET function in patients with obstructive ET dysfunction undergoing tympanoplasty.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This parallel-group, single-blind, monocentric, randomized clinical trial included patients with chronic inflammatory middle ear disease and ET dysfunction seen at a tertiary referral center and scheduled for tympanoplasty between January 2015 and November 2019.

Time course of transimpedances is affected by cochlea implant surgical technique.

Background: For cochlear implant (CI) users after subtotal cochlectomy for removal of intracochlear schwannomas, significantly different intracochlear potentials can be observed compared with cochleae of CI patients after round window electrode insertion. The time course of this difference after surgery is so far unknown.

Purpose: The change of intracochlear potentials over time and differences between surgical approaches are investigated.

A case series shows a relation between intracochlear electric field distribution and vestibular co-stimulation with cochlear implants.

The objective of this study was to investigate the relation between the electric field distribution within the cochlea during cochlear implant stimulation and the electrical vestibular co-stimulation measured by vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (e-VEMPs). Measurements were done in adult Nucleus cochlear implant (CI) users with perimodiolar electrode arrays. The electric field distribution within the cochlea was determined by Transimpedance Matrices recorded for all participants with a pulse width of 25 µs and a current level of 110 CL.

European Federation of Organisations for medical physics (EFOMP) policy statement no 20: The role of medical physicists and medical physics experts in physiological measurement and related therapies.

The role of medical physics professionals (MPPs) (medical physicists and medical physics experts) in physiological measurement and related therapies (PM&T) applied in e.g., critical care, neurophysiology, neurology, physiology, audiology, and neurotology has long been acknowledged.

Cochlear Implantation With Sporadic Inner Ear Schwannomas: Outcomes in 106 Patients From an International Multi-Institutional Study.

Objective: To evaluate cochlear implant speech perception among patients with sporadic inner ear schwannoma who underwent ipsilateral implantation.

Study Design: Retrospective multi-institutional cohort study.

Setting: Eleven tertiary academic medical centers across Germany, Denmark, and the United States.

Superior semicircular canal dehiscence isolation by transmastoid two-point canal plugging with preservation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex.

This article describes the surgical treatment of superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS) by isolating the dehiscence using transmastoid two-point canal plugging while preserving the high-frequency vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) of the affected semicircular canal. The superior semicircular canal is opened via a transmastoid approach anterior (as far from the ampulla as possible) and posterior to the dehiscence and then plugged with connective tissue and bone dust. In two clinical exemplary cases, vestibular testing showed that the VOR measured by video head impulse (vHIT) test was preserved (patient 1: gain preoperative 0.

[Superior semicircular canal dehiscence isolation by transmastoid two-point canal plugging with preservation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex. German version].

This article describes the surgical treatment of superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS) by isolating the dehiscence using transmastoid two-point canal plugging while preserving the high-frequency vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) of the affected semicircular canal. The superior semicircular canal is opened via a transmastoid approach anterior (as far from the ampulla as possible) and posterior to the dehiscence and then plugged with connective tissue and bone dust. In two clinical exemplary cases, vestibular testing showed that the VOR measured by video head impulse (vHIT) test was preserved (patient 1: gain preoperative 0.

Stimulation conditions leading to electrical vestibular co-stimulation in cochlear implant users.

Objectives: The study objective was to investigate the influence of electrical stimulus properties on cervical and ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials to electrical stimulation by cochlear implants (e-cVEMPs, e-oVEMPs).

Methods: E-VEMPs were recorded in adult Nucleus cochlear implant (CI) patients using electric pulse trains (4 biphasic pulses at 1000 Hz burst rate). Ground path and stimulation electrodes were varied between monopolar stimulation at basal electrode contact E3 (MP1 + 2 E3), monopolar stimulation at apical electrode contact E20 (MP1 + 2 E20), and bipolar transmodiolar stimulation between E3 and E14 (BP E3-E14).

Cochlear implantation in patients with inner ear schwannomas: a systematic review and meta-analysis of audiological outcomes.

Purpose: In patients with inner ear schwannomas (IES), reports on hearing rehabilitation with cochlear implants (CI) have increased over the past decade, most of which are case reports or small case series. The aim of this study is to systematically review the reported hearing results with CI in patients with IES considering the different audiologic outcome measures used in different countries.

Methods: According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline, a search of published literature was conducted.

Enhancing Cochlear Implant Outcomes across Age Groups: The Interplay of Forward Focus and Advanced Combination Encoder Coding Strategies in Noisy Conditions.

Hearing in noise is challenging for cochlear implant users and requires significant listening effort. This study investigated the influence of ForwardFocus and number of maxima of the Advanced Combination Encoder (ACE) strategy, as well as age, on speech recognition threshold and listening effort in noise. A total of 33 cochlear implant recipients were included (age ≤ 40 years: = 15, >40 years: = 18).

Unilateral Multifocal Inner Ear and Internal Auditory Canal or Cerebellopontine Angle Cochleovestibular Schwannomas-Genetic Analysis and Management by Surgical Resection and Cochlear Implantation.

Objective: To describe the genetic characteristics and the management of two very rare cases of unilateral multifocal inner ear and internal auditory canal or cerebellopontine angle cochleovestibular schwannomas not being associated to full neurofibromatosis type 2-related schwannomatosis.

Patients: In a 29-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman with single-sided deafness multifocal unilateral cochleovestibular schwannomas were surgically resected, and hearing was rehabilitated with a cochlear implant (CI). Unaffected tissue was analyzed using next generation sequencing of the NF2 gene.

Influence of the Spread of the Electric Field on Speech Recognition in Cochlear Implant Users.

Objective: To investigate the correlation of word recognition with cochlear implant (CI) and spread of the electric field.

Study Design: Prospective, noninterventional, experimental study.

Setting: A tertiary referral center.

Zig-zag structures in silver dichromate precipitate.

Precipitation patterns are commonly concentric rings forming in a Petri dish or parallel bands appearing in a test tube (Liesegang phenomenon). The rings frequently consist of a number of convex segments that are separated from each other by spaces devoid of precipitate resulting in small gaps (dislocations). Along these gaps, the so-called zig-zag structures can form, which connect one side of a gap with its opposite side.

Influence of Age on Speech Recognition in Noise and Hearing Effort in Listeners with Age-Related Hearing Loss.

The aim of this study was to measure how age affects the speech recognition threshold (SRT) of the Oldenburg Sentence Test (OLSA) and the listening effort at the corresponding signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The study also investigated the effect of the spatial configuration of sound sources and noise signals on SRT and SNR. To achieve this goal, the study used olnoise and icra5 noise presented from one or more spatial locations from the front and back.

Is there an influence of perceptual or cognitive impairment on complex sentence processing in hearing aid users?

Background: Hearing-impaired listeners often have difficulty understanding complex sentences. It is not clear if perceptual or cognitive deficits have more impact on reduced language processing abilities, and how a hearing aid might compensate for that.

Methods: In a prospective study with 5 hearing aid users and 5 normal hearing, age-matched participants, processing of complex sentences was investigated.

An analysis of the spread of electric field within the cochlea for different devices including custom-made electrodes for subtotal cochleoectomy.

Objective: Cochlear implants (CIs) can restore hearing not only in patients with profound hearing loss and deafness, but also in patients following tumour removal of intra-cochlear schwannomas. In such cases, design and placement differ from conventional electrode insertion, in which the cochlea remains filled with fluid. Despite these technical and surgical differences, previous studies have tended to show positive results in speech perception in tumour patients.