A team of WashU researchers is working to standardize a common hearing test to improve parents’ understanding of their child’s hearing loss and provide better counseling on hearing interventions. Leading the effort are Otolaryngology faculty Rosalie Uchanski, PhD, and Lisa Davidson, PhD, and former audiology student Cory Hillis. When an infant is diagnosed with hearing […]
The Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO) held its 46th Annual MidWinter Meeting Feb. 11-15 in Orlando, FL. The meeting is the largest assembly of hearing and balance researchers in the world and features presentations of basic, applied and clinical science. Hearing scientists from Washington University in St. Louis have for decades maintained a strong […]
Director of Washington University’s Cochlear Implant Program Jill Firszt, PhD, is no stranger to studying single-sided deafness and asymmetric hearing loss in adults. Her previous work demonstrated the benefits of cochlear implants in these patients and helped provide critical data needed to promote the adoption of expanded implant criteria by the FDA. Firszt has now […]
A new collaboration between Washington University hearing scientists and colleagues at Northwestern University hopes to shed new light on both the mechanisms of hearing loss and the optimization of cochlear implant outcomes. The collaboration is an integral part of an NIH grant awarded to WashU Associate Professor of Otolaryngology Mark Rutherford, PhD, and Jeffrey Savas, […]
The laboratory of Lavinia Sheets, PhD, at Washington University School of Medicine may have discovered the cause of hearing loss due to cisplatin, a common chemotherapy agent used to treat many cancer patients. Sheets serves as assistant professor of otolaryngology at WashU. The work was largely conducted by otolaryngology resident David Lee, MD, who presented […]
Thomas Lenarz, MD, PhD, will give the 2022 annual Senturia Lectureship to the Department of Otolaryngology at Washington University School of Medicine. The title of his presentation will be, Hearing4All: functional restoration of hearing using auditory devices. Lenarz studied medicine and biochemistry at universities in London and Tübingen, Erlangen, and Heidelberg, Germany, from 1975 until […]
The American Cochlear Implant Alliance has awarded a $30,000 grant to Department of Otolaryngology researchers to study under-utilization of cochlear implants in the U.S. The objectives of the study, Adult Cochlear Implant Utilization in the United States: A Nationwide Analysis, are to: Better describe the under-utilization of cochlear implants across the U.S. to significant geographic […]
Understanding the cellular and molecular responses that underlie cochlear implant-induced fibrosis (scar tissue) and neo-ossification (new bone formation) has been hampered by the lack of a suitable animal model for research. Cochlear implantation provides enhanced hearing for thousands of hearing-impaired Americans each year. And, with expanded criteria allowing health insurance to cover severe hearing loss […]
More than 48 million Americans suffer some degree of hearing loss. As the average age of our population increases, so will that statistic. Excessive noise exposure is considered a leading cause of hearing loss, and no FDA-approved treatment is available to prevent noise-induced damage. Scientists working at Washington University School of Medicine may soon change […]
Washington University School of Medicine experts have long been at the forefront of improving hearing for individuals with single-sided deafness (SSD). Now, with improvements in cochlear implant technology and recent FDA approvals for cochlear implants for those with single-sided deafness, Washington University’s Department of Otolaryngology is poised to treat even more patients with SSD while […]