Declan Costello, MA, MBBS, FRCS(ORL-HNS),
Consultant Ear,
Nose and Throat Surgeon,
Wexham Park Hospital,
Slough, Berkshire, UK.
E: d.costello@nhs.net
TW / X: @Voicedoctor_uk
As we slip seamlessly into the new year, I hope you have all had a good break and that you are refreshed and raring to take on 2025. We have a brace of excellent articles for you for January/February, covering our customary wide range of topics.
We’re particularly pleased to be featuring an important article by Sean Carrie and James O’Hara. This presents the findings of the NAIROS trial, looking at the effectiveness of septoplasty surgery. As one would expect for two high-profile researchers, this very robust study provides us with important data on the benefits of this operation, which is clearly one of the most-performed ENT surgical procedures.
The political landscape has a profound impact on our day-to-day functioning and shapes all our lives in many ways. Who knows how the landscape will look under the Republican party, but it’s likely that the environment will be a key talking point. Many efforts have been made at improving sustainability in healthcare, and in the UK, Mahmood Bhutta has been spearheading a number of initiatives. He and his colleagues give us an update on the relatively simple practical measures that we can all adopt to improve our sustainability practices.
You may well be aware that we have a number of sister publications, including Urology News and The PMFA Journal. Roz Painter is one of our colleagues over on Eye News, and in a conversation with audiologist Chris Gordon and healthcare scientist Anthony Vukic, she looks at the cross-over between diagnostics and care of patients in both specialties.
We like to look to the future, and when our Implantables Specialty Editor, Helen Cullington, and our Global Ambassador in South Africa, De Wet Swanepoel, met at the World Congress of Audiology in Paris in September, they projected their thoughts forward to imagine the field of cochlear implants in the year 2074.
And speaking of the (slightly nearer) future, our next edition will feature a supplement on paediatric ENT. This will be edited by Ray Clarke and Claire Benton, and promises to feature some updates on this ever-changing area of practice. For our industry colleagues interested in advertising in this supplement, please do contact our team: Rosaleen at Rosaleen@pinpoint-scotland.com or Rhian at Rhian@pinpoint-scotland.com
As loyal readers will know, the ENT & Audiology News team pop up regularly at meetings around the world, and our diary is full for much of the first half of 2025 – you can catch us (either in person or by picking up a magazine) at (amongst others) EROC in Dubai, AAA New Orleans, the ENT UK spring meeting, and many others. I’m particularly looking forward to the European Laryngological Society’s meeting in Warsaw in June.
We have just heard the news of the sudden and tragic death of our paediatric ENT colleague Vikki Possamai. Vikki worked at the Evelina Hospital in London and was a much loved and hugely respected colleague and friend. From a personal perspective, it was a privilege for me to be an examiner with her for the EBEORL-HNS exam (above), and she will be very sorely missed. She had also been a fantastic contributor to ENT & Audiology News, working as our specialty editor in paediatric ENT. Our sincere condolences go out to her husband and children. A full tribute will appear in a future edition of the magazine.
CLICK BELOW FOR THE ARTICLES
