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Top Online & Insider Headlines in June

• New Gene Therapy Delivery System Developed to Restore Hearing
• Car Airbags Cause Permanent Hearing Loss in 17% of Deployments
• Evidence Lacking to Guide Treatment of Sudden Hearing Loss

• Auditory Nerve Implants May Deliver Wide Range of Sounds
• ASHA and CEA Combine Forces on Public Education Campaign
• Widex AS and University of London Survey Noise in UK Cities
• New Web Site on Acoustic Neuroma Offered
• How Many People Have Hearing Loss in Your State?
• Pediatric Hearing Aid Loaner Bank Established by Oticon
• Cartilage Shield Restores Hearing in Chronic Ear Infection Patients
• Interacoustics Introduces New VEMP
• BHI Promotes Hearing Solutions at National Press Club

• Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System have discovered a way to transfer genes, which they hope will restore hearing, into diseased tissue of the human inner ear. This important step brings scientists closer to curing genetic or acquired hearing loss. Their discovery appears in the June 14 online issue of the scientific journal, Gene Therapy.
• Although steroids are the most widely used treatment for idiopathic sudden hearing loss, little scientific evidence supports their use or that of any other therapies for this condition, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis, both published in the June issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery.
• Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Washington, DC, have, for the first time, used a cochlear implant to restore hearing in a patient with von Hippel-Lindau disease. The researchers say this advance offers new hope for individuals with the rare disorder, which can produce non-malignant tumors in ears, as well as in the eyes, brain, and kidneys.
• Inserting a "shield" of cartilage into the inner ear is a less invasive and more cost-effective alternative to membrane reconstruction when treating hearing loss in selected patients suffering from chronic otitis media, according to a new study published in the June edition of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery.
• Oticon Pediatrics has unveiled a program designed to assist hearing care professionals in providing care for infants and toddlers newly identified with hearing loss. The national Loaner Bank Program will provide hearing instruments to children, ages birth to 3 years, who are in need of immediate amplification when amplification is not readily available.
• Auditory physiologist Richard Price at the National Hearing Conservation Association's 32nd Annual Conference presented data that predict 17% of people exposed to deployed airbags in American cars will suffer from permanent hearing loss. His data also show, contrary to what experts had previously thought, airbag deployment is more hazardous to the ear when a car's windows are rolled down.

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