Journal Reviews archive for 2018
BPPV and bone mineral density
Over the years, attempts have been made to identify modifiable risk factors for BPPV. Due to the chemical composition of otoconia, the role of calcium metabolism and its associated conditions have been studied with no firm conclusions. The authors studied...
Does pre-op intratympanic gentamicin improve balance control after vestibular schwannoma surgery?
This retrospective study was based on data from 44 patients selected from a cohort of 153 who had undergone surgical resection of vestibular schwannoma over a 10-year period. The aim was to evaluate the dynamics of the postural control system...
A histological test for LPR?
Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) is often considered to be a contributory factor to the development of a spectrum of laryngeal abnormalities including vocal cord leukoplakia and dysplasia. This is especially the case when traditional risk factors, such as tobacco smoking, are...
Postinfectious olfactory disorders
Recovery of olfactory function following URTI is frequent, even many years after the infectious insult. Upper respiratory tract infection is the commonest cause of olfactory loss. Many treatment options exist including topical steroids, vitamin B, acupuncture, and zinc, which can...
KTP laser ablation for early glottic cancer
TLM for glottic carcinoma has historically been performed with a carbon dioxide (CO2) laser. A much smaller literature base has examined the use of potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) laser in this context. This retrospective chart review aims to fill that...
Postoperative radiation in early stage oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer (OPSCC)
There is significant variation in treatment strategies for OPSCC between units. This is largely due to unanswered questions which continue to exist beyond the published literature. We know that human papilloma virus status has a significant influence on prognosis but...
Management of infantile haemagiomas of the airway
This paper reviews the diagnosis and management of infantile haemagiomas (IH) affecting the airway. Approximately half of infants with this condition would also have cutaneous haemagiomas which are usually in the beard distribution. IH could affect any parts of the...
What is the prognostic value of lymph node yield and density in head and neck cancer?
Neck dissection in addition to surgery of the primary site is commonly recommended in head and neck cancer treatment. However, there has been no consensus on the number of nodes that need to be removed to constitute a sufficient neck...
Standardising outcome measures in chronic rhinosinusitis
This international paper, involving the foremost rhinology departments worldwide aims to provide a standardised, agreed core outcome set for chronic rhinosinusitis, which has been designed to facilitate future meta analyses of published work in systematic reviews. Stakeholders included patients, ENT...
Which bit of our brains do we need to recognise fear, disgust and happiness?
Recognising other people’s emotions is a useful life skill for human interaction in both social and vocational situations. Yet there remains significant debate about which areas of the brain are required to enable us to read and understand these facial...
Better conversations for children with Autism and peers for now and for their futures
There are around 700,000 people with diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the UK, according to 2011 census figures. A key diagnostic feature in ASD are difficulties in social interactions and conversations, social-emotional responses and relationships. The authors of this...
Does CPAP help diabetes?
This meta-analysis and review of the literature examines the long-held belief that CPAP treatment improves glucose levels in patients with OSA. As usual in these cases, thousands of articles were initially flagged up in the search with only six RCTs...
