Clinical study on the efficacy, acceptance, and safety of hearing aids in patients with mild to moderate presbyacusis.

Background: The primary objective of this trial was to demonstrate the effect of wearing a Hearing aid (HA) on improvement of hearing and comprehension in everyday life situations.

Methods: This single-center phase IV open-label clinical trial was carried out on men or women 40 years old or more, presenting mild or moderate first-degree presbyacusis. Presbyacusis was diagnosed by performance of pure-tone audiometry in silence.

The Voice Track multiband single-channel modified Wiener-filter noise reduction system for cochlear implants: patients' outcomes and subjective appraisal.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential improvements of speech perception and sound quality provided by a multiband single channel noise-reduction algorithm based on the modified Wiener-filter adapted to cochlear implant sound processing.

Design: This study was a longitudinal trial with a repeated-measures design. Outcome measures were performed on the first day when the noise reduction feature was provided and after a one month habituation period.

Clinical evaluation of the xDP output compression strategy for cochlear implants.

Technological advances in the domain of digital signal processing adapted to cochlear implants (CI) are partially responsible for the ever-improving outcomes observed with this neural prosthesis. The goal of the present study was to evaluate audiometric outcomes with a new signal processing strategy implemented in Oticon Medical-Neurelec cochlear implant systems, the xDP strategy. The core of this approach is a preset-based back-end output compression system, modulating a multi-channel transfer function depending on the intensity and information content of input sounds.

The relationship between electrical auditory brainstem responses and perceptual thresholds in Digisonic® SP cochlear implant users.

Determining the electrical stimulation levels is often a difficult and time-consuming task because they are normally determined behaviorally - a particular challenge when dealing with pediatric patients. The evoked stapedius reflex threshold and the evoked compound action potential have already been shown to provide reasonable estimates of the C- and T-levels, although these estimates tend to overestimate the C- and T-levels. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the evoked auditory brainstem response (eABR) can also be used to reliably estimate a patient's C- and T-levels.

Speech performance and sound localization abilities in Neurelec Digisonic® SP binaural cochlear implant users.

In this prospective study the outcome of the Digisonic® SP Binaural cochlear implant (CI), a device enabling electric stimulation of both cochleae by a single receiver, was evaluated in 14 postlingually deafened adults after 12 months of use. Speech perception was tested using French disyllabic words in quiet and in speech-shaped noise at +10 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Horizontal sound localization in quiet was tested using pink noise coming from 5 loudspeakers, from -90 to +90° along the azimuth.

Traumatic retropharyngeal hematoma: a rare and critical pathology needed for early diagnosis.

Retropharyngeal hematoma occurs rarely. It is located just in front of the cervical spine. Many circumstances can lead to its development.

Pulsatile tinnitus cured by mastoidectomy.

Tinnitus of venous origin is a rare occurrence. It represents roughly half of cases of vascular tinnitus. The choice of treatment is not easy, even when the diagnosis is certain.

Phase 2 study of intratumoral cisplatin and epinephrine treatment for locally recurrent head and neck tumors.

Local relapses of head and neck tumors are not often eligible for surgical and/or radiotherapy retreatment, and the efficacy of systemic chemotherapy is poor. A greater accumulation and efficacy of anticancer drugs with lower systemic toxicity is theoretically obtained with intratumoral chemotherapy. In experimental studies, epinephrine has been shown to increase the concentration and antitumor effect of intratumoral cisplatin.

EDTA enhances the antitumor efficacy of intratumoral cisplatin in s.c. grafted rat colon tumors.

We have investigated whether EDTA, a calcium chelator, could improve the accumulation of platinum in tumors and enhance the antitumor efficacy by increasing drug diffusion through the extracellular tumor matrix. Intratumoral injection of 0.3 mg/kg cisplatin combined with 10 mg/ml EDTA in 2 ml saline serum led to tumor cure in four of eight rats and produced major tumor regression in the other animals.