Current notions of “hearing impairment,” as reflected in clinical audiological practice, do not acknowledge the needs of individuals who have normal hearing pure tone sensitivity but who experience auditory processing difficulties in everyday life that are indexed by reduced performance in other more sophisticated audiometric tests such as speech audiometry in noise or complex non-speech sound perception. This disorder, defined as “Auditory Processing Disorder” (APD) or “Central Auditory Processing Disorder” is classified in the current tenth version of the International Classification of diseases as H93.25 and in the forthcoming beta eleventh version. APDs may have detrimental effects on the affected individual, with low esteem, anxiety, and depression, and symptoms may remain into adulthood. These disorders may interfere with learning per se and with communication, social, emotional, and academic-work aspects of life. The objective of the present paper is to define a baseline European APD consensus formulated by experienced clinicians and researchers in this specific field of human auditory science. A secondary aim is to identify issues that future research needs to address in order to further clarify the nature of APD and thus assist in optimum diagnosis and evidence-based management. This European consensus presents the main symptoms, conditions, and specific medical history elements that should lead to auditory processing evaluation. Consensus on definition of the disorder, optimum diagnostic pathway, and appropriate management are highlighted alongside a perspective on future research focus.

Objectives: The efficacy of stapedotomies performed on patients with small air-bone gaps (<25 dB) was compared with the efficacy of the operation in patients who had otosclerosis with high air-bone gaps (≥25 dB). Methods: This retrospective study evaluates the short-term postoperative air and bone conduction thresholds and air-bone gaps after 182 CO₂ laser stapedotomies. Results: A significantly smaller air-bone gap and lower air conduction thresholds after surgery were observed in the group of patients who underwent surgery with preoperative air-bone gaps of less than 25 dB. Bone conduction thresholds improve in the group with small air-bone gaps after surgery. Conclusions: The results after stapedotomies are good even if the preoperative air-bone gap is small and the overall risk of hearing deterioration due to stapes surgery remains low.

As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to (1) explain the outcome of recurrent OME before age 3 on later language and verbal STM development, (2) be aware of the complex relationships that link language development and verbal STM, (3) explain how fluctuant hearing loss during infancy and early childhood could affect verbal STM development and learning capacity for new phonological information, (4) describe different verbal STM measures that distinguish retention capacities for phonological and lexico-semantic information, and (5) explain the influence of phonotactic frequency on nonword processing in language and verbal STM tasks.

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