Category: Ear, Nose and Throat

For the more than 50 million Americans who experience the phantom sounds of tinnitus — ringing in the ears that can range from annoying to debilitating — certain well-trained rats may be their best hope for finding relief.Researchers at the University at Buffalo have studied the condition for more than 10 years and have developed these animal models, which can “tell” the researchers if they are experiencing tinnitus.These scientists now have received a $2.

During a press conference on Parliament Hill, the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (CASLPA) alerted parents that a noisy classroom can affect a child’s ability to learn. With children back in school for a new year, audiologists and speech-language pathologists advise parents to be aware of the noise conditions in their children’s classrooms.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Taxotere Injection Concentrate combined with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil for induction therapy of locally advance squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck before chemoradiotherapy and surgery. The Agency says the approval was based on the results of Phase II randomized, open label, international human trial, TAX 324, which demonstrated that Taxotere is safe and efficacious and appreciably improves survival.

That midday wall you hit where you just can’t stay awake may be an indicator of obstructed nasal passages and sleep disordered breathing, according to a new study published in the October 2007 edition of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. Nasal obstruction is an upper airway condition that can be caused by a variety of maladies, such as allergies, rhinosinusitis, or a deviated septum.

With cold and flu season right around the corner, many new parents of infants and toddlers will soon be visiting their family pediatrician complaining of painful or recurring ear aches. In most cases, children suffering from ear infections are prescribed Amoxicillin or a similar antibiotic to combat the infection, but when antibiotics fail to stop ear infections from recurring, pediatricians typically recommend a procedure called a tympanostomy.

Your body goes to a lot of trouble to make sure you stay upright. But when the brain’s neural pathways are impaired through injury, age or illness, muscles are deprived of the detailed sensory information they need to perform the constant yet delicate balancing act required for normal movement and standing.

Despite improvements in surgical techniques and the development of novel chemoradiotherapy strategies, survival rates in patients with head and neck cancer has remained relatively unchanged over the last 30 years. While this could be due to the absence of any significant advancements in treatment techniques, newer targeted therapies now hold out great promise for the future.

What makes one smell pleasant and another odious? Is there something in the chemistry of a substance that can serve to predict how we will perceive its smell? Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the University of California at Berkeley have now discovered that there is, indeed, such a link, and knowing the molecular structure of a substance can help predict whether we will find its smell heavenly or malodorous.

Performing otologic surgery in the austere environment of a developing nation is a difficult undertaking. Many surgeons perform humanitarian missions, without knowledge of long-term results, which leaves the question as to how many people these missions truly help. However, new research validates these critical expeditions for patient care.

It is estimated that more than 50 million Americans suffer from tinnitus, a condition where the patient experiences ringing or other head noises that are not produced by an external source. This disorder can occur in one or both ears, range in pitch from a low roar to a high squeal, and may be continuous or sporadic.