CEU Courses

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.

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.