Journal Reviews archive for March 2018
Does turbinoplasty outcome vary in the presence of allergic disease?
This well organised study from Australia looks at inferior turbinoplasty outcomes in patients with allergy and non-allergic rhinitis who have become refractory to medical treatment. There were 190 patients undergoing turbinoplasty with or without septoplasty assessed in this case-control study...
Is combined two wall decompression approach a better surgical outcome for Grave’s orbitopathy?
This retrospective study looked at the outcome of endoscopic medial wall combined with transcutaneous lateral orbital wall decompression in Graves’ orbitopathy. The following parameters were studied: reduction in proptosis; change in visual acuity and diplopia. A total of 36 orbits...
Graft material success for tympanoplasty
This retrospective Belgian study looked at the success rates of xenograft and human allograft materials as alternatives to more common autograft materials like fascia, fat or cartilage. A total of 71 consecutive patients who underwent type 1 tympanoplasty were included,...
Parathyroid surgery in day care
Targeted parathyroid adenoma excision via preoperative ultrasound and radionuclide scanning techniques allow accurate localisation of the affected gland, allowing a minimally invasive surgical approach. The authors reviewed 144 cases undergoing surgery for primary hyperparathyroidism. Of these 67 were eligible for...
Paediatric nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Between 11 and 18% of nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC) occur in the paediatric age group but there are no specific management guidelines for this age group. Tunisia is a region with an intermediate incidence of NPC, the authors studied 40 cases...
Multi-layered repair of lateral sphenoid CSF rhinorrhoea
This case series describes the author’s results with repairing lateral sphenoid encephalocoeles in seven patients. Alloderm inlay with abdominal fat onlay and nasoseptal flap onlay repair resulted in a 100% success rate with no recurrence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhoea,...
Post-thyroidectomy vocal cord palsy: are there long-term sequelae?
This is a well written paper utilising the Hospital Episode Statistics dataset for all thyroidectomies performed in England between 2004 and 2012. The study had a very impressive 43,515 participants and only included young, fit patients undergoing thyroidectomy once for...
The hot nose
Capsaicin nasal spray can offer moderate to significant symptomatic relief to 70-80% of patients with idiopathic rhinitis (IR). Efficacy was also shown in lab studies. Nasal hyper reactivity (NHR), absence of allergy / infective rhinosinusitis, age limits (18-60), no anatomical...
The double-half bilobed flap or traditional bilobed flap: which is better?
Reconstruction of the nasal tip following ablative surgery can be taxing. The nasal tip is a very visible area with largely immovable skin and reconstruction needs an appreciation of the various subunits to achieve best results. The traditional superiorly based...
The newest robot from da Vinci – what can it offer for hypopharyngeal cancer surgery?
The standard existing da Vinci surgical robot (the Si model) has been much maligned for not being optimally designed for transoral access and endoscopic manoeuvrability in head and neck surgery. This preclinical work from Holsinger and his team looks at...
How to talk about hearing aid costs?
Money is always a controversial topic if discussed in reference to healthcare. This study raises the interesting topic of difficulties when it comes to discussing the costs of hearing aids with customers. Sixty-two audiological appointments were recorded and discussions concerning...
Static positional nystagmus
This study aimed to clarify the interpretation of positional nystagmus (PN) by looking at the current criteria for significance of PN, comparison of PN in symptomatic patients with normative data, prevalence of PN among participants with balance problems and assessing...
