Otopront treatment workstation
An ENT treatment unit with a high-definition video-endoscopy system. It gives a real-time view of the nose, throat and ear on a screen you can watch during the examination.
Technology
You see what we see.
An ENT complaint often arrives as a description. Breathing that is blocked on one side, a ringing that comes and goes, a child who does not answer when called. The examination turns that description into something you can look at: an image on the screen beside you, or a measurement from a hearing test. What is treated is then decided from what the examination shows.
The endoscopic image is on the screen while the examination is happening.
A finding you can look at, not just be told about.
Being told that your septum is deviated is information. Seeing the narrow side of your own nose on the monitor is understanding. The second one tends to stay with you, because you can picture what happens when you breathe.
The examination unit is from Otopront. The endoscopic optics and camera are from KARL STORZ, and they are what put the nasal and throat image on the monitor. The ear is examined under a ZEISS microscope. Hearing and balance testing is carried out on a PATH MEDICAL Sentiero device.
The systems
The equipment behind the examination
The consultation room is equipped for diagnosis, not only for conversation. Each device below is there to show what is happening inside the nose, ear and throat, so that treatment can be directed at the cause rather than only the symptom.
KARL STORZ endoscopes
Endoscopic optics and instruments used for detailed assessment of the nasal cavity, sinuses, pharynx and larynx. The endoscopic view is used to look for mucosal changes, polyps and narrowing of the airway.
ZEISS optical systems
ENT microscopy for examination of the ear canal and the eardrum. The same optics are used for microsurgical work on the ear.
PATH MEDICAL Sentiero
A compact audiometric and neuro-otology platform for hearing and balance testing. It records objective, non-invasive measurements in children and adults, including patients who are too young to describe what they hear.
Hearing and balance diagnostics
How hearing and balance are measured
Hearing and balance can be measured rather than estimated from symptoms alone. The tests below are carried out in one room, usually within a single appointment, and they can be combined for adults and for children.
- 01
Tympanometry and impedance audiometry
A soft probe rests in the ear canal and measures how the eardrum moves and the pressure behind it, a non-invasive test that usually takes about a minute for each ear.
- 02
Pure-tone and speech audiometry
Through headphones, this measures the quietest tones you can hear and how clearly you understand spoken words, using your own responses and nothing invasive.
- 03
Otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE and TEOAE)
A small probe plays quiet sounds into the ear and records the response produced by the outer hair cells of the cochlea, non-invasively and without any answers needed from the patient.
- 04
Brainstem evoked response audiometry (BERA/ABR)
Sensors placed on the surface of the skin record how the hearing nerve and the brainstem respond to sound, non-invasively and while the patient simply rests or sleeps.
- 05
Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP)
Surface sensors on the neck record how the balance organs of the inner ear respond to sound, a non-invasive way to assess the part of the ear involved in dizziness.
Consultation
What the examination is actually like
As an adult, you sit upright in the examination chair. Before an endoscopy, the nose is usually prepared with a decongestant and a local anaesthetic spray, which may taste bitter for a few seconds. The endoscope is thin and is passed gently along the floor of the nose; the sensation is usually described as pressure, and both sides are commonly examined within a few minutes. The screen is turned towards you, so you see what the doctor sees, and the findings are explained while the image is still in front of you.
A child is examined more slowly and with less equipment. It often begins with the child on a parent's lap and a look in the ears with a small light, then the quieter tests. Hearing screening with a probe or with surface sensors asks the child to be calm rather than co-operative, so infants are frequently tested while they sleep. Equipment is shown and explained before it is used, and if a child becomes distressed the examination is paused and continued at a later visit.
Consultation
Book a consultation
Consultations in German, English, Spanish and Farsi.
Quttainah Specialized Hospital · Al Wasl Road, Umm Suqeim 3, Dubai