Humanitarian Surgical Missions: Planning for Success.

Humanitarian surgical missions can provide much needed care for those who are otherwise unable to receive such care because of limited local health care resources and cost. These missions also offer excellent training opportunities and can be life-changing experiences for those who participate in them. A successful humanitarian surgical mission requires careful planning and coordination and can be challenging for those tasked with the responsibilities to organize and lead these missions.

Prevalence of vestibular and balance disorders in children.

Objective: Determine the prevalence of vestibular and balance disorders in children, rate of complaints of imbalance, and odds ratio of related diagnoses.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective review of pediatric health system during a 4-year period for International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, codes related to balance disorders. Identified records were searched for chief complaints related to balance and for codes of related otologic and neuro-otologic diagnoses.

Humanitarian otologic missions: long-term surgical results.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of treating chronic ear disease by performing a single surgical intervention in the austere environment of a developing nation.

Subjects And Methods: Data were collected from retrospective chart reviews on 121 patients who underwent surgical treatment of chronic ear disease during humanitarian surgical missions in South and Central America. Surgical outcomes and clinical course were assessed at 10 to 12 months after the initial surgery.

Otologics fully implantable hearing system: Phase I trial 1-year results.

Objective: To assess the safety of the Otologics fully implantable hearing system after 1 year of use in a Phase I clinical trial.

Study Design: Repeated-measures within-subjects design.

Setting: Procedures were performed in a variety of facilities, including a university, military, and private hospital's ambulatory surgical center and outpatient clinical audiologic test facilities.

Eosinophilic granuloma: bilateral temporal bone involvement.

Eosinophilic granuloma is an uncommon condition that is characterized by unifocal or multifocal osteolytic lesions that often affect the skull. Unilateral lesions of the temporal bone are not uncommon, but bilateral temporal bone lesions are rare. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, fewer than 20 such cases have been reported during the past 40 years.

U.S. Phase I preliminary results of use of the Otologics MET Fully-Implantable Ossicular Stimulator.

Objectives: The safety of the Otologics Fully-Implantable MET Ossicular Stimulator was assessed in adult patients with bilateral moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss.

Methods: Surgical implantation of the ossicular stimulator was performed. A repeated-measure, within-subjects design assessed safety and aided sound field thresholds and speech performances with the subject's own, appropriately fitted, walk-in hearing aid(s) and the Otologics Fully-Implantable MET Ossicular Stimulator.