SAN DIEGO-Hearing aids can become a reliable source of ancillary income for otolaryngologists, according to four speakers in the miniseminar, Hearing Aids: The Dollars and Cents of Dispensing, presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS).
Approximately 28 million people living in the United States suffer from some degree of hearing loss. It is the most frequently occurring birth defect—about three of every 1,000 babies are born with hearing loss.
PHOENIX-Low-frequency hearing loss could be an early indicator that a patient has cerebrovascular disease or is at risk for cardiovascular (CV) disease. These are the key findings in a two-part study investigating whether there is a relationship between audiometric patterns and vascular disease.
Although eustachian tuboplasty is in its infancy and specific criteria and indications for its use have not yet been established, researchers hope that it might provide a viable alternative to using pressure equalization tubes or tympanostomy for chronic eustachian tube dysfunction.
As spring spreads across the country, the change in temperature and slanting of the sun promises that summer is soon on its heels. For many primary care physicians and otolaryngologists, particularly those living in northern climes, that means an upsurge in people presenting with acute otitis externa, a condition that is estimated to afflict from 1 in 100 to 1 in 250 persons in the general population.
While Paul Kileny, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Medical Schoo, was treating patients with superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SSCD), he noticed something a bit strange: The patients had abnormal readings on electrocochleographic tests. And not just some of them-all of them did.
In a prospective study, researchers have found that most otitis media infections are associated with rhinovirus upper respiratory infections-making the prospect of a vaccine to prevent the ear infections remote.