CEU Courses

Vestibular disorders in children are a significant cause of childhood morbidity with various manifestations that are often unrecognized or undiagnosed. The etiological profile, phenotype, and management for peripheral and central disorders are markedly different from that in adults. The diagnostic algorithm with the latest technology is also different as children are far more difficult to obtain anamnesis from and to test as compared to adults. Examining a child is really an art that can come from years of experience and knowledge about the pediatric vestibular system and its development. It is also important to recognize the close overlap with pediatric neurology and indeed, a robust knowledge in neurology is essential to practice pediatric neurotology. This presentation includes an overview of the developing pediatric vestibular system in children, the etiology of pediatric vestibular disorders, the diagnostic process with evidence-based latest methods, and their management. The differences in pediatric vestibular diagnosis and disease profiles are also highlighted from the authors’ personal series.

Performing real-ear measures is a clinical win - win - win. It ensures patient audibility and therefore success with amplification. It aids confidence in the provider that they are delivering the highest standard of care. And it creates value for the practice by delivering clinical efficiency through the decreased need for adjustment appointments. During this course, we will discuss 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. The goal of this course is to not only deliver efficient solutions that you can integrate into your office today, but also expand your thinking about ways to use real-ear in your clinical practice.

This seminar will cover the scientific principles behind probe microphone measurements as applied in hearing clinics. We will briefly discuss the theory and go through how the PMM are performed in the clinic. The course is designed for audiologists seeing adult patients for hearing device prescription. Basic knowledge of PMM will be helpful.

The introduction of modern tools assessing otolith and ampullary reflexes in the high-frequency domain (VEMPs and video-HIT, respectively) has enabled a fast functional analysis of all inner ear receptors, offering new interpretations for end-organs and afferents abnormalities detected in patients with cochleo-vestibular pathologies. The literature review highlights how vestibular disorders could result in specific lesion patterns, including selective dysfunctions involving a single receptor. A series of patients with isolated impairment of a semicircular canal at the video-HIT will be presented and discussed. Each selective canal dysfunction will be correlated to the remaining clinical-instrumental data and related inner ear pathology. The underlying hypothetical pathomechanism accounting for each single scenario will be provided, with the help of pertinent bibliographic support.

Visually Induced Dizziness is often described by patients attending the balance clinic. It is associated with peripheral and central vestibular disorders, can be one of the more disabling aspects of the patient’s condition and, if not identified and managed effectively, will impact a patient’s recovery. During this session, the speaker provides tools and resources to identify Visually Induced Dizziness, context to help explain the condition to patients, and tips and tricks on how to manage patients with this disease.

During this session, the speaker provides pragmatic tips-and-tricks for learning the basic, hands-on techniques and skills required to become competent and confident in performing and interpreting Real-Ear Measurement (REM). Clayton demonstrates these essential REM procedures by performing a complete hearing aid fitting on the patient simulator CARL.

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.