Implantable hearing devices in clinical practice. Systematic review and consensus statements

Objective. Implantable hearing devices represent a modern and innovative solution for hearing restoration. Over the years, these high-tech devices have increasingly evolved but their use in clinical practice is not universally agreed in the scientific literature. Congresses, meetings, conferences, and consensus statements to achieve international agreement have been made. This work follows this line and aims to answer unsolved questions regarding examinations, selection criteria and surgery for implantable hearing devices. Materials and methods. A Consensus Working Group was established by the Italian Society of Otorhinolaryngology. A method group performed a systematic review for each single question to identify the current best evidence on the topic and to guide a multidisciplinary panel in developing the statements. Results. Twenty-nine consensus statements were approved by the Italian Society of Otorhinolaryngology. These were associated with 4 key area subtopics regarding pre -operative tests, otological, audiological and surgical indications. Conclusions. This consensus can be considered a further step forward to establish realistic guidelines on the debated topic of implantable hearing devices

On the complementary energy in elasticity and its history: the Italian school of nineteenth century

In the formulation of mechanical theories, physicists usually neglect complementary energy, while rational mechanicians and engineers widely use it, especially in continuum physics and structural mechanics. Indeed, in many cases the solutions of elastic problems are found in a simpler way by resorting to complementary, rather than potential, energy. Moseley and Cotterill in England, Menabrea and Castigliano in Italy were among the first to introduce complementary energy in their papers, though implicitly; a more explicit formulation is in Crotti’s papers; and Engesser extended it to non-linear elasticity. In this work we run through the history of complementary energy and search for its possible mechanical meaning