Journal Reviews
Pretend placements: simulation is as good as the real thing
Clinical placements are now, more than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, a huge time and personnel commitment. Recently, allied health students have had huge changes to their placements, often undertaking them entirely remotely. This article describes a novel method of...
Predicting the need for salvage laryngectomy
The treatment of laryngeal cancer has seen a shift towards organ preservation strategies with non-surgical treatment offering equivalent survival outcomes. Nonetheless, salvage total laryngectomy (SLT) remains an important curative management option in cases of treatment failure or recurrence. The authors...
How long is too long? Waiting times for speech and language therapy
Waiting lists are a reality of clinical practice, and many health and social care professionals become used to having to cope with this. The authors of this paper addressed this issue by examining written submissions to the 2014 Senate Inquiry...
Remembering how to speak
Reminiscence therapy (RT) is an approach that provides people with dementia opportunities to recount nostalgic memories and access thoughts for communication. It is one of the most commonly used therapies in aged care settings. The aim of RT is to...
Two reliable endoscopic myringoplasty techniques for anterior tympanic membrane perforations
Difficulties that arise in closing anterior perforations in the tympanic membrane are due to a narrow isthmus of the external auditory canal and an anterior wall bulge which obscures the most anterior part of the tympanic membrane. The conventional microscopic...
Does use of pectoralis muscle myocutaneous flap (PMMCF) reduce postoperative pharyngocutaneous fistula complication after salvage laryngectomy?
Salvage laryngectomy for recurrent laryngeal carcinoma following failed radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy is associated with high postoperative complication rate. The primary aim of this paper was to assess whether use of muscle myocutaneous flap (PMMCF) as an interposition graft reduces the...
Cochlear implant use in young children
There are clear and well-established links between those identified and fitted with amplification early and good spoken language outcomes, but how much does the time an appropriately fitted hearing instrument is used each day contribute to this? During the first...
Telepractice for the delivery of paediatric feeding services
During the current COVID-19 pandemic, telepractice is being heralded as the safest service delivery mode for the majority of outpatient consultations. Patients are reviewed by their healthcare specialist through video consultations, thus avoiding the need for patients to leave their...
What do SLTs do in palliative care?
The authors of this article highlight that the number of older people has increased significantly in the last two decades, and the number of people over 85 has doubled in Australia since 1996. They attribute this to improved lifestyle factors...
Traditional incision and drainage of a quinsy may be more efficacious than aspiration
Peritonsillar abscess drainage has always been one of the first procedures an ENT junior doctor performs. Traditionally incision and drainage (I&D) was the mainstay of treatment. In recent years, needle aspiration of the abscess has become much more commonplace, perhaps...
What the people want and need: emerging service for communication needs in Ghana
There is a significant shortfall in rehabilitation service for people with communication difficulties across Majority World countries. It is known that many people in these countries are likely to seek help from a variety of sectors including western healthcare, religious...
Doing it for the men: diversifying the speech and language therapy profession
It is known that many health professions are dominated by females, particularly the allied health professions, such as speech and language therapy. This is more pronounced in the US than in the UK, Australia and other countries. The authors of...
