CEU Courses

Sheila Thelen, President of Vestibular Training Services and Master Rated Figure Skating Coach, applied these world-class vestibular training tools (USA Patent) in an INNOVATION presentation on how spinning affects the vestibular system and can improve the brain’s ability to balance and the cognitive processes. Sheila speaks about applying world-class athletic training tools to the general population.

This session walks clinicians through the setup of the real-ear equipment in a real office environment, how to structure patient appointments for measuring patient outcomes, integrating real-ear measures with hearing aid adjustments and what to look for in hearing aid fitting. In addition, we will discuss how you can think outside the test box and use the real-ear equipment to evaluate alternative devices like Apple Airpods, OTC devices and more. The goal of the course is to not only deliver practical solutions that you can integrate into your office today but also expand your thinking about ways to use real-ear in your practice.

This session walks clinicians through a typical hearing aid fitting using Real-Ear Measurement (REM) and interprets the obtained aided/unaided Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) values. The Expected Benefit with Amplification (EBA) tool is introduced to help clinicians assess the adequacy of their fittings and to counsel patients based on the measured improvement in audibility.

Menière Disease (MD) and Vestibular Migraine (VM) are the 2 most common causes of episodic vertigo. Diagnosis of both disorders is based on clinical history and on audiometric exam showing, in Menière Disease, sensorineural low-frequency hearing loss. At onset, differential diagnosis is often a puzzling dilemma, considering that around 50% of MD subjects also experience migraine, and VM patients, in many cases, report cochlear symptoms during attacks. Recent works propose that according to phenotypes and comorbidities, MD could be differentiated into subgroups, each presenting peculiarities for onset and evolution, MD with migraine among them. Other authors proposed a similar work for VM patients. In this webinar, Dr. R. Teggi examines clinical and etiological conditions commonly shared.

This webinar reviews the Symphonia system, which enables hearing care professionals to simulate real-world listening scenes so that patients can experience the benefits of hearing aids and advanced hearing aid features. Symphonia provides 360° directional sound sources and allows the professional to change the angle and distance from which sounds are perceived by the patient in real-time.

Besides typical symptoms and signs (including pulsatile tinnitus, hyperacusis, pressure/sound-induced torsional nystagmus, conductive hearing loss and lowered thresholds of air-conducted VEMPs) an analysis of the relevant literature reveals a certain clinical polymorphism induced by superior canal dehiscence (SCD). In addition to asymptomatic persons or subjects with SCD presenting exclusively with cochlear symptoms (only partly explained by the so-called “near-dehiscence syndrome”), SCD cases mainly presenting with atypical/refractory/recurrent positional vertigo and/or Meniere-like vertigo spells have been recently described. Moreover, if surgical occlusion of the superior canal (SC) results in symptoms control inducing a selective SC hypofunction, clinicians my sometimes accidentally detect a reduced SC VOR gain in asymptomatic patients with wide-sized dehiscence. These findings led authors to propose the occurrence either of a natural SC plugging (complete or incomplete) by middle fossa dura prolapsing into the canal lumen or a dispersion of mechanical energy through the dehiscence. Typical and atypical scenarios is presented. A subsample of patients from the personal series with a complete otoneurologic assessment (audiometry, VOG eye recording, air/bone-conducted cervical/ocular VEMPs, video head impulse test) is selected to explain these emerging theories on possible pathomechanisms.

The need for real-time diagnostic tele-audiology solutions continues to grow as the demand for audiology services expands. This course discusses the benefits of tele-audiology, the opportunities for use and how Satellite by Inventis is uniquely positioned to deliver by providing tools that allow providers to interact and perform complete hearing assessments remotely in real-time.

Over the past five years, we have seen a growing interest in studying vestibular disorders in children. The most commonly noteworthy are vestibular disorders in congenital sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and cochlear implants. Identifying and diagnosing vestibular and balance dysfunction in children is essential for their overall well-being. However, the diagnosis process is very demanding.This talk will provide an overview of vestibular and balance assessments in children with SNHL.

Meniere's Disease (MD) is one of the most intriguing and somewhat frustrating pathologies that, over the more than 150 years since its first description, has kept scientists and dedicated professionals busy searching for any development that would be helpful in curing affected patients. Histopathological studies have associated MD with the accumulation of endolymph in the cochlea and the vestibular organs. However, there are several comorbidities associated with MD, such as migraine, anxiety, autoimmune, and autoinflammatory disorders, which add more complexity to the phenotype. The goal of this lecture is to explain the approach to the diagnosis and treatment of MD, highlighting the importance of non-ablative therapy options and discussing treatment protocols after medical failure.