The History of Pediatric and Adult Hearing Screening.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To document the history of hearing seeing in children and adults. STUDY DESIGN: A literature search in all languages was carried out with the terms of hearing screening from the following sources: Pub Med, Science Direct, World Catalog, Index Medicus, Google scholar, Google Books, National Library of Medicine, Welcome historical library and The Library of Congress. METHODS: The primary sources consisting of books, scientific reports, public documents, governmental reports, and other written material were analyzed to document the history of hearing screening. RESULTS: The concept of screening for medical conditions that, when found, could influence some form of the outcome of the malady came about during the end of 19th century. The first applications of screening were to circumscribe populations, schoolchildren, military personnel, and railroad employees. During the first half of the 20th century, screening programs were extended to similar populations and were able to be expanded on the basis of the improved technology of hearing testing. The concept of universal screening was first applied to the inborn errors of metabolism of newborn infants and particularly the assessment of phenylketonuria in 1963 by Guthrie and Susi. A limited use of this technique has been the detection of genes resulting in hearing loss. The use of a form of hearing testing either observational or physiological as a screen for all newborns was first articulated by Larry Fisch in 1957 and by the end of the 20th century newborn infant screening for hearing loss became the standard almost every nation worldwide. CONCLUSIONS: Hearing screening for newborn infants is utilized worldwide, schoolchildren less so and for adults many industrial workers and military service undergo hearing screening, but this is not a general practice for screening the elderly. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: NA Laryngoscope, 131:S1-S25, 2021.

Correction to: The Developing Concept of Tonotopic Organization of the Inner Ear.

The email address for Robert J. Ruben should be rruben@montefiore.org.

The Developing Concept of Tonotopic Organization of the Inner Ear.

This study aims to document the historical conceptualization of the inner ear as the anatomical location for the appreciation of sound at a continuum of frequencies and to examine the evolution of concepts of tonotopic organization to our current understanding. Primary sources used are from the sixth century BCE through the twentieth century CE. Each work/reference was analyzed from two points of view: to understand the conception of hearing and the role of the inner ear and to define the main evidential method. The dependence on theory alone in the ancient world led to inaccurate conceptualization of the mechanism of hearing. In the sixteenth century, Galileo described the physical and mathematical basis of resonance. The first theory of tonotopic organization, advanced in the seventeenth century, was that high-frequency sound is mediated at the apex of the cochlea and low-frequency at the base of the cochlea. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, more accurate anatomical information was developed which led to what we now know is the accurate view of tonotopic organization: the high-frequency sound is mediated at the base and low-frequency sound at the apex. The electrical responses of the ear discovered in 1930 allowed for physiological studies that were consistent with the concept of a high to low tone sensitivity continuum from base to apex. In the mid-twentieth century, physical observations of models and anatomical specimens confirmed the findings of greater sensitivity to high tones at the base and low tones at the apex and, further, demonstrated that for high-intensity sound, there was a spread of effect through the entire cochlea, more so for low-frequency tones than for high tones. Animal and human behavioral studies provided empirical proof that sound is mediated at a continuum of frequencies from high tones at the base through low tones at the apex of the cochlea. Current understanding of the tonotopic organization of the inner ear with regard to pure tones is the result of the acquisition over time of knowledge of acoustics and the anatomy, physical properties, and physiology of the inner ear, with the ultimate verification being behavioral studies. Examination of this complex evolution leads to understanding of the way each approach and evidential method through time draws upon previously developed knowledge, with behavioral studies providing empirical verification.

The Fox and the Crow: Predatory Open Access Journals in Otolaryngology.

Otolaryngologists regularly receive invitations from open access otolaryngology­head and neck surgery journals to submit papers or to join the editorial board. Some of these journals are considered "predatory." There has been no published attempt to see if bogus otolaryngological articles would be accepted by such journals. We sent a fake article describing a supposed otosclerotic lesion localized in the fallopian tube and surgically treated by phacoemulsification of the stapes to 41 such journals. Eight journals accepted the paper, 7 requested structural revision, 2 requested revision even though the reviewer recommended rejection, 4 rejected the paper only because they found it had already been published by another open access journal (without the authors' knowledge), and 2 rejected the paper. Eighteen journals had not responded after 6 weeks. A contemporary retelling of the poem "The Fox and the Crow" concludes our article, which illustrates predatory practices among specific open access otolaryngology journals.

Language development in the pediatric cochlear implant patient.

OBJECTIVE: To access the long-term outcomes of children implanted during most sensitive period for language development. STUDY DESIGN: Literature review. METHOD: An initial PubMed search was carried out using the search terms language development and cochlear implant resulted in 1149 citations. A second search was carried out on the initial citations using the criterion of implantation in the period of birth to 24 months, which identified 386 articles. These were analyzed to determine those studies in which linguistic outcome was measured at least three or more years following implantation. RESULTS: Twenty-one reports published from 2004 to 2017 that met the criteria. The range of follow-up was from 3 years to an excess of 10 years. Four => 10-year follow-up reports were consistent in showing that the earlier the subject is implanted the better the outcome. Many, but not all, of these children did obtain age-appropriate language. There were 17 reports with follow-up from 3 to less than 10 years. In 7 of the 11 studies, the children's expressive language was reported to have reached an age level of less than 80%. The results for receptive language showed that 4 of the 11 studies found that the children achieved a receptive language age level of less than 80%. There were 8 studies which documented the effect of implantation before 12 months of age and between 12 and 24 months of age and they all found that the earlier the implantation, the better the outcome for language. CONCLUSION: The cochlear implant is efficacious in the amelioration of receptive and expressive language deficits in most congenitally deafened children implanted before the age of one. The language outcomes for those implanted after the age of one decline as the age of implantation increases. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: N/A.