Asymmetry in the Perception of Electrical Chirps Presented to Cochlear Implant Listeners.

Introduction: Although a broadband acoustic click is physically the shortest duration sound we can hear, its peripheral neural representation is not as short because of cochlear filtering. The traveling wave imposes frequency-dependent delays to the sound waveform so that in response to a click, apical nerve fibers, coding for low frequencies, are excited several milliseconds after basal fibers, coding for high frequencies. Nevertheless, a click sounds like a click and these across-fiber delays are not perceived.

Identification of Follow-Up Markers for Rehabilitation Management in Patients with Vestibular Schwannoma.

This study delves into the absence of prognostic or predictive markers to guide rehabilitation in patients afflicted with vestibular schwannomas. The objective is to analyze the reweighting of subjective and instrumental indicators following surgery, at 7 days and 1 month postoperatively. This retrospective cohort encompasses 32 patients who underwent unilateral vestibular schwannoma surgery at the Marseille University Hospital between 2014 and 2019.

Balloon dilation for persistent unilateral chronic obstructive Eustachian tube dysfunction is effective: a prospective multicentre study.

Purpose: Balloon dilatation of the Eustachian tube (BDET) is an option for treating chronic obstructive Eustachian tube dysfunction (COETD). In this prospective multicentric study, the main objective was to evaluate the results of BDET in unilateral COETD refractory to medical treatment.

Methods: Adults with unilateral COETD whose Eustachian Tube Score (ETS) was less than 5 despite medical pressure therapy were included.

Place of Tubomanometry in Patulous Eustachian Tube Diagnosis.

Objective: The aim of our study was to describe the diagnostic performances of tubomanometry (TMM) and to determine tubomanometric parameter thresholds for the diagnosis of patulous eustachian tube (PET).

Study Design: We performed a retrospective, monocentric study, including patients treated for PET vs control group.

Setting: This study was performed at the Otolaryngology Department of a tertiary-care hospital in the south of France.

Navigation strategies in patients with vestibular loss tested in a virtual reality T-maze.

During navigation, humans mainly rely on egocentric and allocentric spatial strategies, two different frames of reference working together to build a coherent representation of the environment. Spatial memory deficits during navigation have been repeatedly reported in patients with vestibular disorders. However, little is known about how vestibular disorders can change the use of spatial navigation strategies.

Representation of Body Orientation in Vestibular-Defective Patients Before and After Unilateral Vestibular Loss.

The unilateral vestibular syndrome results in postural, oculomotor, perceptive, and cognitive symptoms. This study was designed to investigate the role of vestibular signals in body orientation representation, which remains poorly considered in vestibular patients. The subjective straight ahead (SSA) was investigated using a method disentangling translation and rotation components of error.

Quantitative biomarkers allow the diagnosis of head and neck paraganglioma on multiparametric MRI.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify quantitative MR biomarkers in head and neck paragangliomas.

Methods: The study was approved by an institutional review board. A retrospective review of patients with head and neck paragangliomas (HNPGL) evaluated by time-resolved MRA sequences between 2009 and 2019 was performed.

Is salvage surgery for large vestibular schwannomas after failed gamma knife radiosurgery more challenging?

In order to verify whether a previous gamma knife surgery (GKS) treatment could influence the oncological and functional outcome in large vestibular schwannoma (VS) surgery, we have compared group of patients operated on for large VS after failed GKS to a group of genuine VS that underwent the same functional nerve-sparing resection technique regimen in the same period. Single center retrospective cohort study of 23 consecutive GKS failure and 170 genuine VS patients operated on between April 2003 and March 2019. After resection, patients were allocated to a Wait-&-rescan or an upfront GKS policy.

Sunnybrook Facial Grading System: Intra-rater and Inter-rater Variabilities.

Objectives: Evaluate intra-rater and inter-rater variabilities of the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System (SFGS) and explore potential factors of variability.

Study Design: Prospective test of hypothesis.

Setting: University tertiary referral center.

Study of the Comorbidity Between Cases of Acute Peripheral Vestibulopathies and COVID-19.

Importance: An infective etiology of acute peripheral vestibulopathy (APV) has long been hypothesized. In the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we examined the possible comorbidity between these two entities.

Objectives: APV is the second most common cause of vestibular disorders and results from a sudden and unilateral loss of vestibular inputs.

Is minor surgery safe during the COVID-19 pandemic? A multi-disciplinary study.

Background: To assess the risk of postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The CONCEPTION study was a cohort, multidisciplinary study conducted at Conception University Hospital, in France, from March 17th to May 11th, 2020. Our study included all adult patients who underwent minor surgery in one of the seven surgical departments of our hospital: urology, digestive, plastic, gynecological, otolaryngology, gynecology or maxillofacial surgery.

Signs of spatial neglect in unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy.

Background And Purpose: In this study, the question of whether egocentric representation of space is impaired in chronic unilateral vestibulopathies was examined. The objective was to test current theories attributing a predominant role to vestibular afferents in spatial cognition and to assess whether representational neglect signs are common in peripheral vestibular loss.

Methods: The subjective straight-ahead (SSA) direction was investigated using a horizontal rod allowing the translation and rotation components of the body midline representation to be dissociated in 21 patients with unilateral vestibular loss (right, 13; left, eight) and in 12 healthy controls.

Ultrarare heterozygous pathogenic variants of genes causing dominant forms of early-onset deafness underlie severe presbycusis.

Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss (ARHL), is a major public health issue. About half the phenotypic variance has been attributed to genetic factors. Here, we assessed the contribution to presbycusis of ultrarare pathogenic variants, considered indicative of Mendelian forms.

Facial Nerve Canal Paraganglioma.

We report the case of a 72-year-old woman presenting with a progressive left peripheral facial paralysis and a facial canal mass extending through the stylomastoid foramen along the posterior edge of the parotid gland. On MRI, the early and intense enhancement was highly suggestive of paraganglioma but could not rule out a nonossifying hemangioma. Laboratory analysis showed normal plasma metanephrines.

Intratemporal facial nerve schwannomas: multicenter experience of 80 cases.

Purpose: To provide more data on the clinical presentation and natural evolution of facial nerve schwannomas and to provide guidance for therapeutic decision making.

Methods: A retrospective case review of eighty patients diagnosed with a facial nerve schwannoma between 1990 and 2018 in ten tertiary referral centers in Europe was performed. Patients' demographics, symptomatology, audiometry, anatomical site (segments involved), size and whenever possible volume measurement were registered.

The Effects of Hypoxia on Middle Ear Pressure Regulation.

Middle ear (ME) pressure regulation has been suggested as a physiological mechanism that maintains pressure equilibrium between the ME and the ambient environment. This mechanism would be based on a complex sensorineural reflex loop composed of mechanoreceptors, an integrative center, and efferent neural pathways. Our aim was to demonstrate that hypoxic conditions, which would inhibit mechanoreceptors in general, similarly participate in the inhibition of the opening of the Eustachian tube (ET), and thus, to suggest that such receptors are involved in the overall regulation of ME pressure.

Incidental Effect of Long-Term Tacrolimus Treatment on Sporadic Vestibular Schwannoma Volume Shrinkage and Clinical Improvement.

Objective: We describe the effect of long-term tacrolimus delivery on sporadic vestibular schwannoma (VS).

Patient: A 48-year-old woman who was diagnosed a right VS.

Intervention: Long-term tacrolimus delivery following liver transplant.

Exploring the link between tumour metabolism and succinate dehydrogenase deficiency: A F-FDOPA PET/CT study in head and neck paragangliomas.

Objectives: Nuclear imaging findings by virtue of phenotyping disease heavily depend on genetic background, metabolites, cell membrane specific targets and signalling pathways. PPGL related to succinate dehydrogenase subunits mutations (SDHx mutations) are less differentiated than other subgroups and therefore may lack to concentrate F-FDOPA, a precursor of catecholamines biosynthesis. However, this F-FDOPA negative phenotype has been reported mostly in SDHx-PPGL of sympathetic origin, suggesting that both genotype status and location (from sympathetic vs parasympathetic paraganglia; adrenal vs extra-adrenal) could influence F-FDOPA uptake.

Does NF2 status impact the results of combined surgery and adjunctive Gamma Knife surgery for large vestibular schwannomas?

In order to verify whether neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) could influence the oncological and functional outcome in large vestibular schwannoma (VS) surgery, we compared a group of NF2 patients operated with a facial nerve-sparing technique to a group of sporadic VSs of similar volume that underwent the same treatment regimen in the same period. Single-center retrospective cohort study about 12 consecutive NF2 and 69 non-NF2 patients operated on for large VS between September 2006 and November 2016. After resection, patients were allocated to an upfront Gamma Knife surgery policy of the tumor residue.

Unilateral vestibular deafferentation impairs embodied spatial cognition.

A growing number of studies indicate that cognitive complaints are common in patients with peripheral vestibular disorders. A better understanding of how vestibular disorders influence cognition in these patients requires a clear delineation of the cognitive domains affected by vestibular disorders. Here, we compared the consequences of left and right vestibular neurectomy on third-person perspective taking-a visuo-spatial task requiring mainly own-body mental imagery, and on 3D objects mental rotation imagery-requiring object-based mental imagery, but no perspective taking.

Predictive Factors of Early Postoperative and Long-Term Facial Nerve Function After Large Vestibular Schwannoma Surgery.

Objective: The preservation of acceptable facial nerve (FN) function after surgery is the key concern for most patients with vestibular schwannomas (VS). To assess predictive factors of early postoperative and long-term FN function in patients harboring large VS operated with a FN-sparing technique.

Methods: Single-center retrospective cohort study with 169 consecutive large VS operated on between January 2003 and May 2015.

Validation of French versions of the Facial Disability Index and the Facial Clinimetric Evaluation Scale, specific quality of life scales for peripheral facial palsy patients.

Objectives: To translate and validate French versions of two health-related quality of life questionnaires for patients with peripheral facial palsy: Facial Disability Index (FDI) and Facial Clinimetric Evaluation (FaCE) scale.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: University tertiary referral centre.

Tumor multifocality with vagus nerve involvement as a phenotypic marker of SDHD mutation in patients with head and neck paragangliomas: A F-FDOPA PET/CT study.

Background: F-FDOPA PET/CT was proved to be a highly sensitive imaging method for detecting head and neck paraganglioma (HNPGL). The primary aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship between tumor characteristics and the SDHx-mutational status in a large series of patients with HNPGL evaluated by F-FDOPA PET/CT.

Methods: A total of 104 patients with HNPGL (65 sporadic/39 SDHx-mutated) were included.

Adjunctive Gamma Knife Surgery or Wait and Scan Policy After Optimal Resection of Large Vestibular Schwannomas: Clinical and Radiologic Outcomes.

Objectives: Patients with large vestibular schwannomas (VSs) will require surgical treatment owing to the potential consequences of long tract and cranial nerve compression. We assessed the long-term clinical and radiologic outcomes of patients harboring large VSs treated with a facial nerve (FN)-sparing technique.

Methods: We performed a single-center retrospective cohort study of 169 consecutive large VSs treated surgically from January 2003 to May 2015.