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Otolaryngology

Novel Digital Storybook Intervention Aims to Support Children With Hearing Loss
 Novel Digital Storybook Intervention Aims to Support Children With Hearing Loss 1024 683 Abbie Roth
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Hear Me Read, invented and developed at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, is now being validated in a prospective clinical trial. For children who are deaf or hard of hearing, access to sound via hearing aids and cochlear implants and intensive speech therapy with highly trained verbal therapists are important parts of developing speech and literacy. “Children…

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Is Tracheostomy Tube Placement in Preemies Safe?
 Is Tracheostomy Tube Placement in Preemies Safe? 1024 575 Mary Bates, PhD
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Nurse caring for infant in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

The procedure is safe and effective in newborns requiring high ventilator pressures. Tracheostomy tube placement is a common procedure performed for premature infants requiring respiratory assistance. Compared to an endotracheal tube, placement of a tracheostomy tube is thought to allow the infant more opportunities for comfort, interaction, nutrition and growth. However, rates of tracheostomy tube…

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Featured Researcher — Tendy Chiang, MD, FACS
 Featured Researcher — Tendy Chiang, MD, FACS 150 150 Natalie Wilson
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​​​​​​​Tendy Chiang, MD, FACS is a principal investigator in the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. His work focuses on understanding how airway tissue repairs and regenerates itself and using that information to design tissue-engineered trachea. Tissue engineering is the process of seeding cells on a biodegradable scaffold or support…

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Uncovering Why Synthetic Tracheal Replacements Fail, and Hints for Success
 Uncovering Why Synthetic Tracheal Replacements Fail, and Hints for Success 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood
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“There is no ideal replacement for the trachea,” says Tendy Chiang, MD, a pediatric otolaryngologist and a principal investigator in the Center for Regenerative Medicine in the Abigail Wexner Research Institute (AWRI) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “There are many surgical techniques that can manage tracheal defects and disorders, however, for longer-segment defects, they oftentimes require replacement tissue that…

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From Clinician Ideas to Commercially-Available Clinical Devices
 From Clinician Ideas to Commercially-Available Clinical Devices 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
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Pressure wounds were a common complication following a tracheostomy, often resulting in advanced-stage wounds, national studies showed. Nationwide Children’s Hospital was no different but Kris Jatana, MD, and Charles Elmaraghy, MD, surgeons in the Department of Otolaryngology, knew they could improve these outcomes. Brendan Boyle, MD, and Alex Green, DO, were fellows in the Division…

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Linking Structure and Function in Children With 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome
 Linking Structure and Function in Children With 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood
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Children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome commonly have velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD), affecting speech and swallowing. A recent series of studies finds that anatomy of their soft palate and associated bony structures and muscles differ from children who don’t have the syndrome. The findings suggest that these differences may be associated with speech, hearing and middle ear…

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Redirecting the Natural Immune Response to Disrupt Bacterial Biofilms
 Redirecting the Natural Immune Response to Disrupt Bacterial Biofilms 150 150 Lauren Dembeck
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A new vaccine candidate has the potential to improve outcomes for patients with chronic, recurrent diseases, such as ear infections. Could this platform technology be an important key in solving the antibiotic resistance threat? Most bacterial species prefer to live in biofilms, where they are protected from antibiotic treatments and can lead to chronic and recurrent…

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Stopping Progression of Tissue Injury after Button Battery Ingestion
 Stopping Progression of Tissue Injury after Button Battery Ingestion 150 150 Abbie Roth
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Irrigation with acetic acid neutralizes tissue and prevents delayed esophageal complications. Button battery injuries in children have been increasingly severe – resulting in devastating injuries and even death. Button batteries damage esophageal tissue through isothermic hydrolysis reactions, resulting in alkaline caustic injury, which leads to tissue necrosis. Prompt removal of the battery is critical to…

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Why Do Synthetic Tracheal Replacements Fail?
 Why Do Synthetic Tracheal Replacements Fail? 150 150 Lauren Dembeck
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Synthetic tracheal replacements experience infectious, inflammatory and mechanical failures. Tracheal defects in children and adults can often be addressed with current surgical techniques. However, when a defect is large, greater than 50% of an adult windpipe or 30% of a pediatric windpipe, few options exist to repair it without donor tissue. For decades, tissue engineers…

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Free Disposal Bags Increase Rate of Proper Opioid Disposal
 Free Disposal Bags Increase Rate of Proper Opioid Disposal 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
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With or without the bags, families of young children prescribed opioids after surgery properly discard drugs at more than double the rate of adults prescribed post-operative opioids. Handing parents a free drug-disposal bag and discussing its usage significantly increases the rate of proper disposal of unused opioid pain medication leftover after surgery, a study at…

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Using Quality Improvement to Customize Opioid Reduction Strategies
 Using Quality Improvement to Customize Opioid Reduction Strategies 1024 681 Abbie Roth
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Different specialties across pediatrics have different uses, indications and practices when it comes to opioids. Many primary care pediatricians do not routinely prescribe them. Pediatric surgical specialties, however, may use opioid medications more frequently depending on the patient and procedure performed. While broad restrictions, such as those enacted on the federal and state levels, aimed…

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QI Project Improves Response Time to Nurse Triage Phone Calls in Busy ENT Practice
 QI Project Improves Response Time to Nurse Triage Phone Calls in Busy ENT Practice 1024 683 Abbie Roth
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A high-volume pediatric otolaryngology practice receives a lot of phone calls from patients and families. The practice at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which sees 32,000 clinic visits and 9,000 surgical patients each year, averaged more than 200 triage calls per week over the last 5 years. The response times to those calls needing clinician input ranged…

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Simulating Surgery With High-Performance Computing
 Simulating Surgery With High-Performance Computing 1024 575 Abbie Roth
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By applying high-performance computing to the field of otolaryngology, a team of researchers is developing a simulation environment for teaching surgical techniques related to the temporal bone. The purpose of training — whether a fire drill or practicing a surgical technique — is to create successes and avoid failures. “The impact of training is safety…

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Hearing Without Cochlear Nerves
 Hearing Without Cochlear Nerves 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
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Auditory brainstem implant devices may help young children with sensorineural hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is the most common type of hearing loss, accounting for about 90 percent of all hearing loss worldwide. SNHL involves damage to the inner ear (cochlea) or to the nerve pathways from the inner ear to the brain, and thus cannot be managed via…

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