View clinical trials related to Deafness.
Filter by:Hearing loss is a common health problem in Alaska. Up to 75% of children growing up in Alaskan villages experience frequent ear infections, one of the major treatable causes of hearing loss. Children with even mild hearing loss face many challenges. These children often experience speech and language delays and have trouble in school. Teens with hearing loss are more likely to drop out of school, and are at risk for having difficulty finding jobs as adults. Promptly diagnosing and treating hearing loss is important for preventing these consequences. Alaska mandates school-based hearing screening, but many children with hearing loss are not identified by the current screening protocol, and most who are referred never make it into the healthcare system for diagnosis and treatment. Alaska has already developed innovative strategies to address hearing loss. A network of village health clinics staffed by community health aides provide local care, and telemedicine has been adopted in over 250 village clinics statewide. Despite being widely available, telemedicine has not yet been used in school hearing screenings to speed up the referral process. Norton Sound Health Corporation has partnered with Duke and Johns Hopkins Universities to explore whether a new school screening and referral process that incorporates mobile, or mHealth, screening and telemedicine referral will reduce childhood hearing loss disparities in the Norton Sound region. Children from kindergarten through 12th grade in 15 Norton Sound villages will receive the current school screening protocol and the new mHealth screen. Villages will then be randomized to continue the current primary care referral process or to adopt telemedicine referral for school screenings. The investigators hypothesize that the new mHealth screening protocol will identify more children with hearing loss, and telemedicine referral will reduce time to diagnosis. By better identifying hearing loss and speeding up diagnosis and treatment, the investigators expect the burden of childhood hearing loss to drop, hearing-related quality of life to improve, and school performance to improve in villages with telemedicine referral compared to current primary care referral villages. If the study shows these positive effects, mHealth screening and the telemedicine referral process could be implemented in school districts across the state of Alaska to reducing childhood hearing loss disparities statewide.
Investigation of stability of the BHX implant in adult patients indicated and counselled for a bone anchored hearing aid system. Patients are followed according to clinical practice for a total of 12 months in the study. Stability of the implant is evaluated by implant stability quotient.
The present study aims to evaluate patient satisfaction and audiological performance with their current cochlear implant speech processor, the Neuro 1, and to compare it with the satisfaction and performance obtained with the new speech processor, the Neuro 2.
In the UK, cochlear implantation is the standard treatment for adults with 'severe-to-profound' deafness. This level of deafness means that without a cochlear implant they have difficulty understanding what people are saying even when they wear hearing aids. The NHS provides a cochlear implant for one ear even though these adults are deaf in both ears. Two cochlear implants could help them understand speech in noisy environments, know where to look to see who is talking, and avoid hazards outdoors. The decision about who can receive cochlear implants and how many they can receive is based on guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). NICE agreed that providing two cochlear implants can provide additional benefits over providing just one implant. However, they decided that there is not enough evidence to show that these additional benefits are worth the additional cost of providing the second implant. NICE recommended that a clinical trial should be conducted to gather this evidence. This study will consult with patients to explore whether the trial would be acceptable to future implant recipients. The study will also work with clinicians to design a trial comparing bilateral and unilateral implantation in adults. These clinicians will also be surveyed to assess the acceptability of the trial. A group of clinicians that span the range of professions involved in delivering the care pathway will be invited to attend a trial design workshop to establish a consensus on acceptable trial design elements from a clinical perspective. Representatives from cochlear implant manufacturers will be consulted to determine possible strategies for securing industry support for a future trial. Those who run cochlear implantation services will be engaged in a working group to gather information on the current care pathway to inform future assessments of whether bilateral implantation could be cost-effective.
The objective of the study is to compare the outcomes after a surgical procedure with minimally invasive Ponto surgery (MIPS, test group) and tissue preservation surgery (control) for placing Oticon Medical Ponto implants and abutments.
This study aims to explore if objective brain responses to speech stimuli (words and running speech) can be used to evaluate hearing aid fitting in adults. Objective brain responses would be beneficial, as they could be used to evaluate hearing with people who are incapable or unwilling to provide subjective responses. The study aims to determine if EEG responses to speech sounds are sensitive to the effects of hearing aids for hearing aid users. Secondary, the study will look into the need for using speech stimuli in order to obtain more robust responses compared to current clinical standards.
The purpose of this study is to identify factors that may contribute to conductive hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss is a type that is due to a problem with the outer or middle ear. Because of this, sound does not travel through the ear normally. Perforated tympanic membranes of study patients will be photographed during the patient's routine visit using a digital otoscope. These pictures will be used to analyze perforation size as an absolute value as well as a percentage of the tympanic membrane. Audiometric results and CT scans of temporal bone (reports and images) collected as standard of care will be evaluated. Images of CT scans will be imported into a medical imaging software for creation of anatomically realistic 3D models of the middle ear and mastoid air space. Structural analysis on each 3D model will be conducted and analyzed, the volume of middle ear and mastoid air spaces will be recorded, and data points will be correlated with perforation size and location to audiogram results.
Tumors arising from the VIIIth Nerve (vestibulo-cochlear nerve) typically present with progressive unilateral hearing loss and tinnitus. VIIIth Nerve tumors with documented growth on serial MRI scans typically lead to deafness in the affected ear over time. Radiation (Gamma Knife® or stereotactic radiosurgery) may preserve hearing in ~80% while surgery (middle cranial fossa or retrosigmoid approach) may preserve hearing in 16 - 40% of small tumors, although initial hearing preservation by both modalities may fail over time. Surgical resection via the translabyrinthine approach is the safest way to remove many of these tumors, but involves loss of all hearing. In all treatment modalities, the vascular supply (the labyrinthine artery, a terminal branch of AICA with no collaterals) to the cochlea is at risk. After devascularization, the cochlea frequently fills with fibrous tissue or ossifies (labyrinthitis ossificans), making it impossible to place a cochlear implant should it be required later. The incidence of this is 46% in our patients. This study seeks to determine the feasibility of preserving the cochlear duct with an obdurator so that patients undergoing translabyrinthine removal of VIIIth nerve tumors may retain the option of a cochlear implant at a later time.
The purpose of this research study is to develop and evaluate a parent training program, which aims to improve language. The study is being conducted to see if teaching parents positive parenting techniques and behavior strategies will improve the rate of language development in children with cochlear implants when compared to standard speech therapy (e.g., auditory-verbal therapy).
Compare hearing outcomes between treatment with dexamethasone versus prednisone in participants who have been diagnosed with unilateral SSNHL (sudden sensorineural hearing loss).