Kerstin Bergström

Osseointegrated Implants in Children: Experience from Our First 100 Patients:

This study was undertaken on 100 children aged 16 years or under intended for installation of osseointegrated implants. Of these, 76 had implants installed for bone-anchored hearing aids or prostheses. The main indication for implant installation was a bilateral ear malformation. Surgery was generally performed as a two-stage procedure with a healing time of 3 to 4 months in between. Available bone thickness was on average 2.5 mm, and lack of bone necessitated bone augmentation in 12 patients. Thirty-nine percent of implants were installed in contact with the dura, sigmoid sinus, or an air cell. Implant failures were 5.8% of 170 inserted fixtures. Adverse skin reactions appeared in 9.1% of patients over a 21-year follow-up period. Revision surgery was undertaken in 22% of patients because of appositional growth of the temporal bone. Of the 24 children considered but not found suitable for osseointegration surgery, plastic surgery was considered a better option, or growth of the temporal bone was awaited. It is concluded that the rate of implant failure is lower in children; the frequency of skin reactions is the same as in adults, but revision surgery is more common in young patients because of new bone formation. Our clinical experience supported by the data presented in this article suggests that the concept could be used with good functional and aesthetic results in children.

The bone-anchored hearing aid and bone-anchored epithesis for congenital ear malformations.

Surgery for correction of aural atresia was performed on 156 ears in 111 patients. A comparison was made between plastic surgery for auricular reconstruction and the bone-anchored epithesis. Another comparison was performed between hearing Improvement after reconstructive surgery for meatal and middle ear atresia and the bone-anchored hearing aid. It was found that the bone-anchored epithesis is an excellent alternative to plastic reconstructive surgery of the auricle. The bone-anchored hearing aid could be considered as a strong alternative to surgery in patients with meatal and middle ear atresia – especially in patients with advanced malformations. Neither the bone-anchored epithesis nor the bone-anchored hearing aid excludes the patient from reconstructive surgery later in life.

Professional food purchasers' practice in using environmental information

Purpose – Food consumption impacts heavily on the environment. It is therefore highly relevant to study food‐purchasing processes and needs for environmental information in the food supply chain. The objective of this article is to report findings from a study identifying practices in using environmental information when making decisions on what food to procure and purchase.Design/methodology/approach – Using a phenomenographic approach, professional purchasing managers at food production companies and wholesalers in public and commercial food services as well as retailing were interviewed with the aim of identifying practices when using environmental information in decisions on what food to procure for purchasing.Findings – The findings show that purchasers are dependent on corporate policy when it comes to environmental considerations related to food. Purchasers are mainly guided by business parameters with respect to price, quality and service. These factors are given priority over co‐operation along t...

Exploring children's foodscapes

In this article, we discuss childrens becoming as food consumers in the intersection of various foodscapes. We draw from a project, Children as co-researchers of foodscapes, where we have been working with children as co-researchers, using basically ethnographic methods, and as co-designers in a collaborative design effort. This article focuses on the findings from a theoretically inspired perspective, using the concept of foodscapes. These are food-related structures of different kinds, which evolve as the child explores them and where children as food consumers are generated. In this article, we highlight the scapes of taste, routines, people, things, commerce, child (as opposed to adult) and health and give brief accounts of the way the children related to them. Finally, we turn to the benefits of working with foodscapes for a better understanding of childrens becoming as food consumers in the intersection of various foodscapes. This article is based on data gathered by the children, but also on our fieldwork notes and observations following the children in their foodscapes.

Children and Taste: Guiding Foodservice

Taste has been neglected in science, and school foodservice suffers from huge amounts of food waste when children do not eat what is served. This article highlights the importance of taste in terms of childrens food preferences, and the awareness of this fact has been recognized while working with children as co-researchers. The children formulated research questions themselves, chose research methods, gathered information, and analyzed and presented results. In this way, taste developed as the most important aspect of food for them. It is suggested to not just let them be a panel, but also to let children participate from the very beginning in planning school foodservice.