Validity and Reliability of the German Vocal Fatigue Index in Adults With Voice Disorders.

Purpose: Vocal fatigue-related symptoms, frequent in patients with voice disorders, are reliably quantifiable with the Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI) in several languages. The main aim of this work was to investigate the content and construct validity of the German Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI-D) by comparison with the German Voice Handicap Index 9 international (VHI9i) and the Vocal Tract Discomfort Scale (VTD). Moreover, the scale and retest reliability were investigated.

An analysis of the spread of electric field within the cochlea for different devices including custom-made electrodes for subtotal cochleoectomy.

Objective: Cochlear implants (CIs) can restore hearing not only in patients with profound hearing loss and deafness, but also in patients following tumour removal of intra-cochlear schwannomas. In such cases, design and placement differ from conventional electrode insertion, in which the cochlea remains filled with fluid. Despite these technical and surgical differences, previous studies have tended to show positive results in speech perception in tumour patients.

Functional Result After Cochlear Implantation in Children and Adults With Single-sided Deafness.

Background: Patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) suffer from reduced binaural hearing (i.e., sound localization and speech in noise discrimination).

Functional results after Bonebridge implantation in adults and children with conductive and mixed hearing loss.

In patients with conductive hearing loss caused by middle ear disorders or atresia of the ear canal, a Bonebridge implantation can improve hearing by providing vibratory input to the temporal bone. The expected results are improved puretone thresholds and speech recognition. In the European Union, approval of the Bonebridge implantation was recently extended to children.

Mismatch negativity (MMN) objectively reflects timbre discrimination thresholds in normal-hearing listeners and cochlear implant users.

Timbre perception is poor in cochlear implant (CI) users. Most behavioral studies assess timbre discrimination with real instrumental sounds differing in more than one timbre dimension. This study focuses on objective measures of individual discrimination of single timbre dimensions.

Measurement of implant stability and auditory pure-tone thresholds of Baha patients comparing osteosysthesis and osseointegrated systems.

With bone-anchored hearing systems the implant-bone junction is critical for the transmission of mechanical vibrations to the skull. The implant stability might differ between available and widely applied implants and can be estimated by resonance frequency analysis. The implant stability and the audiological performance of ten adult long-time users where a bone-anchored hearing system was connected by an Baha osseointegrated implant (Cochlear Ltd, Mölnlycke, Sweden) were compared with the implant stability of fourteen adult patients provided with a Ti-epiplating osteosysthesis system (Medicon, Tuttlingen, Germany).

Objective estimation of frequency-specific pure-tone hearing thresholds following bone-conduction hearing aid stimulation.

Patients suffering from conductive or mixed hearing loss may benefit from bone-conduction hearing systems (BAHS). The amount of amplification provided by the hearing system is selected based on the individual's sensorineural frequency-specific threshold. With patients who are not able to provide thresholds behaviorally, such as young children, objective methods are required to estimate the unaided and aided hearing threshold and thus the success of the hearing system fitting.

Sorted averaging improves quality of auditory steady-state responses.

Increasing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is essential for the recording of auditory evoked potentials with electroencephalography (EEG). Several protocols have been proposed to increase the SNR, starting with an averaging of EEG epochs which decreases noise level. Since artifacts decrease the SNR by increasing the noise level, artifact detection and reduction protocols are other important tools to reduce the noise level.

Cochlear implantation in a child with posttraumatic single-sided deafness.

Cochlear implantation has become a standard therapy for children with bilateral profound hearing loss, resulting in substantial and sustainable benefits for the development of expressive and receptive and expressive language skills and cognition. During the last few years, audiologic and otologic criteria for cochlear implantation have been expanded. Recently, patients with profound single-sided deafness with or without tinnitus have received cochlear implants despite normal to near-normal hearing on the contralateral side.