Dr Melanie Souter

Otologist, Canterbury DHB, Christchurch, NZ

Dr Melanie Souter is an Otologist working at Christchurch Hospital Otolaryngology Department, as well as Private practice in Christchurch and a surgeon with the Southern Cochlear Implant Program. 

Melanie gained her medical degree and Otolaryngology training in New Zealand and then completed a clinical and research fellowship in Otology/Neuro-otology at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Clinical interests include Pediatric Otolaryngology and implantable hearing devices and branching into endoscopic ear surgery. She works closely with the pediatric hearing aid service, and New Born hearing screening team. Currently researching quality of life outcomes in patients with implantable hearing devices.

Implantable devices for Conductive and Mixed hearing losses

Hearing loss does matter. Unilateral hearing loss does matter. Any degree of hearing loss can be a huge disadvantage in today’s work and school environments. Improving peoples hearing has a huge impact on their quality of life and ability to function. Like our mobile phone technology, hearing aid technology has also made huge progress in the last 10 years. This talk is a general approach to hearing rehabilitation in both paediatrics and adults including semi-implantable hearing devices such as bone conduction implants and middle ear active implants and the clinical and audiological scenarios where they are beneficial. Our current prospective quality of life results with the Medel Bone bridge device will also be presented.