Pathophysiology of Facial Nerve Stimulation and Its Implications for Electrical Stimulation in Cochlear Implants.

Objectives: A small number of cochlear implant (CI) users experience facial nerve stimulation (FNS), which can manifest as facial twitching. In some patients, this can be resolved by adjusting the electrical stimulation parameters. However, for others, facial stimulation can significantly impair CI outcomes or even prevent its use.

Subcutaneous Air Around Receiver-Stimulator Causing Open-Circuit Failures: An Uncommon But Readily Treatable Condition Related to CPAP Use After Cochlear Implant Surgery.

Objective: To raise awareness of a unique complication associated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) use after cochlear implantation to improve early detection, prevent unnecessary testing, and facilitate treatment.

Study Design: Case series.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Do Modern Hearing Aids Meet ANSI Standards?

Background: The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) provides standards used to govern standardization of all hearing aids. If hearing aids do not meet specifications, there are potential negative implications for hearing aid users, professionals, and the industry. Recent literature has not investigated the proportion of new hearing aids in compliance with the ANSI specifications for quality control standards when they arrive in the clinic before dispensing.

Concordance and discordance in patient and provider perceptions of dizziness.

Purpose: The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether there are significant differences in patient/healthcare provider perceptions of patient's dizziness severity, dizziness disability/handicap, anxiety, and signs of autonomic system activation.

Materials And Methods: This was a prospective investigation of 30 patient-provider dyads drawn as a sample of convenience from an otology clinic in a large, tertiary care, medical center. Patients completed both the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) and the Vestibular Symptom Scale (VSS) prior to vestibular function testing.

Predictive properties of the video head impulse test: measures of caloric symmetry and self-report dizziness handicap.

Objectives: The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether a predictable relationship existed between self-reported dizziness handicap and video Head Impulse Test (vHIT) results in a large sample of patients reporting to a dizziness clinic. Secondary objectives included describing the characteristics of the vHIT ipsilesional and contralesional vestibulo-ocular reflex slow-phase velocity in patients with varying levels of canal paresis. Finally, the authors calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the vHIT for detecting horizontal semicircular canal impairment using the caloric test as the "gold standard.

Patterns of abnormality in cVEMP, oVEMP, and caloric tests may provide topological information about vestibular impairment.

Background: The cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) is recorded from the sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM) and represents a stimulus-evoked attenuation of electromyographic (EMG) activity following activation of the saccule and inferior vestibular nerve. In addition to the cVEMP, it is possible to record a biphasic response from the infraorbital region following stimulation that is identical to that used to record the cVEMP. This response is known as the ocular VEMP (oVEMP).

Insensitivity of the "Romberg test of standing balance on firm and compliant support surfaces" to the results of caloric and VEMP tests.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value of the Romberg Test of Standing Balance on Firm and Compliant Support Surfaces (RTSBFCSS) for the identification of patients with vestibular system impairments affecting the horizontal semicircular canal, saccule, and/or inferior and superior vestibular nerves. The RTSBFCSS was developed for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and was used recently to estimate the numbers of individuals aged 40 yr or older with vestibular system impairments among the general population of the United States.

Design: A retrospective analysis of the medical records of 103 consecutive patients aged 40 yr or older (mean age 59 ± 12 yr, 71 females) who had undergone vestibular assessment at the Balance Disorders Clinic at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

The predominant forms of vertigo in children and their associated findings on balance function testing.

This article reports vestibular laboratory findings from the most common disorders known to cause dizziness and vertigo in children. Specific information regarding migraine, trauma, benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood, vestibular neuritis, and otitis media is reviewed, along with indications for balance function testing in children.