What would define real progress in the field of deafness research in fundamental and medical terms? In fundamental terms, progress would be measured by an improvement in our knowledge of the development and physiology of the ear. In medical terms, progress would lead to the division of the broad category of hearing defects into distinct clinical entities or subclasses, the collection of epidemi...

The Synface project is developing a synthetic talking face to aid the hearing-impaired in telephone conversation. This report investigates the gain in intelligibility from the synthetic talking head when controlled by hand-annotated speech in both 12 normal hearing (NH) and 13 hearing-impaired (HI) listeners (average hearing loss 86 dB). For NH listeners, audio from everyday sentences was degra...

BACKGROUND Bone conduction devices are widely used and indicated in cases of conductive, mixed or single sided deafness where conventional hearing aids are not indicated or tolerated. Percutaneous bone-conduction devices gave satisfactory hearing outcomes but were frequently complicated by soft tissue reactions. Transcutaneous bone conduction devices were developed in order to address some of t...

OBJECTIVE To report on the safety and efficacy of an investigational active middle ear implant (AMEI) in Japan, and to compare results to preoperative results with a hearing aid. DESIGN Prospective study conducted in Japan in which 23 Japanese-speaking adults suffering from conductive or mixed hearing loss received a VIBRANT SOUNDBRIDGE with implantation at the round window. Postoperative thr...

BACKGROUND There is a significant group of patients whose hearing impairment is characterized by normal or slightly elevated thresholds in the low frequency band with nearly total deafness in high frequency range. These patients remain beyond the scope of effective treatment by hearing aids. We name this kind of hearing loss 'partial deafness'. CASE REPORT A new method of partial deafness tre...

OBJECTIVE To measure the Quality of Life outcomes and impact on tinnitus perception in a group of patients after Round Window Vibroplasty (RW-VSB) for mixed or conductive hearing loss. STUDY DESIGN A single-subject, repeated measures design was employed. All VSB fittings were based on hearing thresholds results and were not set to mask tinnitus. METHODS Ten Round Window-Vibroplasty patients...

A 79-yr-old male was evaluated by the authors 4-6 wk following a rapid decline in perceived hearing in the right ear. Initial treatment with self-administered external ear canal irrigations and topical antibiotic prescribed by the patient's primary care physician resulted in no apparent improvement. The initial hearing evaluation revealed a mild-to-severe sloping sensorineural loss above 1000 H...

We reported the recovery of sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus in a 22-year-old man after complete removal of intracranial portion of jugular foramen schwannoma via the retrosigmoid approach. The aim of this case report was to present the excision of a large jugular foramen schwannoma via the retrosigmoid approach and to describe the improvement of sensorineural hearing loss related to ara...

The case histories of five patients who experienced blast overpressure in excess of 200-dB peak pressure level are presented. Despite the significance of the sound pressure levels received in a military training accident and the severe injuries that resulted from the blast, these individuals experienced substantial improvement of hearing 1 year later. Undoubtedly, successful surgical interventi...

Introduction Treatment for auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is not yet well established, including the use of hearing aids (HAs). Not all patients diagnosed with ASND have access to HAs, and in some cases HAs are even contraindicated. Objective To monitor the hearing handicap and the recognition threshold of sentences in silence and in noise in a patient with ASND using an HA. Resum...