Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Surgical Management Of Velopharyngeal Dysfunction: Major Techniques And Trends For The 21st Century, Dominic Alessio-Bilowus, Sadaf Hashemian, Kylie Nikolli, Ahmed Hashem Md

Medical Student Research Symposium

INTRODUCTION: Surgical management of velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD) has become increasingly complex over recent decades with advances in diagnosis, evaluation and technique, and research focus in this area is expected to shift accordingly. This study aims to educate readers on updates in management of VPD and explore changes in surgical methods through the 21st century.

METHODS: A systematic review was conducted of all literature published on surgical treatment of VPD since the year 2000, following PRISMA reporting guidelines. Adult-acquired VPD, any non-surgical management, implants and prosthetic devices, animal or cadaver models, and case series involving less than 10 subjects were excluded. …

Improving Hearing Screenings With Tele-Otology, Ryan J. Miller, Joshua George-Lopez, Robert S. Hong Md, Phd

Medical Student Research Symposium

Introduction: The Lions Hearing Center of Michigan (LHC-MI) is an assistance program in Detroit that provides hearing aids to individuals in need. LHC-MI has provided thousands of hearing aids, but such efforts have been costly, requiring patients to make multiple appointments at multiple locations. To streamline this process, the LHC-MI is piloting a new program, titled “Hear Now! Detroit!”, that uses telemedicine to reach patients at community sites.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of a hearing screening program that uses telemedicine to reduce the number of visits required to acquire hearing aids.

Methods: Teams of community volunteers were deployed to …

Noise-Induced Tinnitus Using Individualized Gap Detection Analysis And Its Relationship With Hyperacusis, Anxiety, And Spatial Cognition, Edward Pace, Jinsheng Zhang

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Research Publications

Tinnitus has a complex etiology that involves auditory and non-auditory factors and may be accompanied by hyperacusis, anxiety and cognitive changes. Thus far, investigations of the interrelationship between tinnitus and auditory and non-auditory impairment have yielded conflicting results. To further address this issue, we noise exposed rats and assessed them for tinnitus using a gap detection behavioral paradigm combined with statistically-driven analysis to diagnose tinnitus in individual rats. We also tested rats for hearing detection, responsivity, and loss using prepulse inhibition and auditory brainstem response, and for spatial cognition and anxiety using Morris water maze and elevated plus maze. We …