Otic barotrauma is a potential risk for travelers using commercial aircraft. A significant proportion of passengers are infants. No literature exists regarding pre-flight assessment for prevention of barotrauma in infants due to air travel. Infants are preverbal in their development and cannot communicate their distress with words, though will show age-typical distress and pain responses. Pain ...

In the absence of any acute otological symptoms including pain and temperature, a middle ear effusion in association with hearing loss has been designated by various names, i.e. catarrhal otitis, exudation otitis, serous otitis, nonsuppurative otitis, glue ear, and currently the most fashionable terms, otitis media with effusion and secretory otitis media. A middle ear effusion without inflamma...

Background. The identification of site specific genes and functions essential for virulence may provide further understanding of the pathogenesis of pneumococcal disease and potentially reveal novel targets for treatment and prevention. Methods. We screened more than 10 selected serotypes of Streptococus pneumoniae in our chinchilla model of experimental otitis media (EOM), initially using naso...

—Much research on the fish physiological consequences of tournaments has been conducted to date and has provided anglers and tournament organizers with strategies for reducing stress and mortality. However, one aspect of tournaments that has received little attention is barotrauma. At a fall competitive angling event on Rainy Lake in northwestern Ontario, we evaluated the incidence of barotraum...

Aperilymphatic fistula (PLF) is any abnormal communication between the middle ear or mastoid and the inner ear. Trauma, prior stapes surgery, and barotrauma are accepted etiologies; however, controversy exists over the existence of spontaneous PLF. Typical symptoms include fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus, aural fullness, vertigo, and disequilibrium. PLF diagnosis is based on hi...

The determinants of barotrauma in mechanically ventilated patients with acute lung injury or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS) have not been clearly established. Using data from ARDS Network randomized controlled trials, we retrospectively examined the association between airway pressures and the risk of early barotrauma in a cohort of 718 patients with ALI/ARDS and no baseline bar...