Functional Otology: The Practice of Audiology

Abstract

This book has been written to show how the auditory functional examination and the rehabilitation of the acoustically handicapped patient can be integrated into otological practice. The scope and operation of large audiology centers of hospitals and universities are also considered. The developments in audio-communication have been enormaus during the past ten or twenty years. Similarly, the general interest in hearing has increased, as shown for instance by such terms as high fidelity an dstereophonic sound systems. Specifically, industries and the military are concerned about injurious noise causing darnage and loss of acoustic function; school systems and departments of health aim at early detection of hearing Iosses and at their correction. The problems connected with hearing are being investigated by otologists, pathologists, physiologists, psychologists, physicists, electro-engineers, audiologists, teachers of lip reading and speech, and teachers of the deaf. These trends and their results are changing the practice of otology. The function of hearing is now probed and tested more easily, more exactly and more comprehensively than before. There is greater promise for alleviation of the handicap of deafness. The physician is expected to examine his patients with otic disease so that he can evaluate the pathology and the impairment of hearing which is the result of the pathology.