Journal Reviews archive for 2023
Benign positional paroxysmal vertigo manoeuvres in children and adolescents: a systematic review
In this paper of Saniasiaya et al, the literature review is conducted in accordance to the PRISMA consensus, aiming to investigate the outcomes of canalith repositioning manoeuvres (CRM) to treat benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) in a paediatric and young...
Videofluoroscopic swallowing studies: balancing risks and benefits
Videofluoroscopic swallow studies (VFSS) are an important part of the diagnostic toolkit and arguably the current gold-standard for assessing swallow biomechanics and diagnosing dysphagia. However, the procedure does involve exposure to radiation, and any clinician requesting this should be able...
Polypharmacy in the vestibular clinic
Polypharmacy is defined as the simultaneous use of five or more medications and its prevalence is increasing. Dizziness or vertigo are common side effects of polypharmacy. Despite advancements in patient data management, there remains limited information on polypharmacy in patients...
How reliable are PTH levels for the prediction of hypocalcaemia after thyroid surgery?
Hypoparathyroidism is one of the most common complications of thyroid surgery. There is significant controversy in calcium management practices post thyroid surgery. The drop in PTH levels has been used to predict the likelihood of hypocalcaemia after thyroid surgery. But...
The nice therapist effect: does the therapeutic relationship matter?
Quality of relationships is considered a core component of all speech and language therapy work, yet there is little agreement of what constitutes a therapeutic relationship. This study describes a scoping review to map existing evidence that has investigated this...
How to improve olfaction and enhance quality of life after laryngectomy
Total laryngectomy diverts airflow away from the nose and, hence, olfaction is greatly impaired. Undoubtedly, this affects quality of life in terms of loss of taste and flavour. Surgery and devices to re-establish airflow into the nose can be difficult...
Gadolinium enhanced MRI and the diagnosis of Ménière’s disease
Despite various criteria applied over the years to diagnose Ménière’s disease since the concept of endolymphatic hydrops was first observed in postmortem examinations of patients in 1938, the diagnosis still remains mainly clinical. To visualise endolymphatic hydrops in MRI imaging,...
Non-surgical and surgical management of arytenoids granuloma
Arytenoid granulomas are often a sequelae of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). Unless there is suspicion of malignancy, they require a very balanced approach between conservative management and surgical intervention. The authors present a series of 62 patients with whom the primary...
Hearing preservation in CI, any predictors?
The electrically evoked compound action potential (eCAP), obtained non-invasively from cochlear implant (CI) recipients, represents a population response of the auditory nerve to electrical stimulation. The eCAP characteristics include threshold (the lower the better), growth of response (the steeper the...
How best can we manage Samter’s Triad/AERD?
The classic ‘Samter’s Triad’ of asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP), and aspirin sensitivity is now referred to as aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory-exacerbated respiratory disease. We often come across in our rhinology setting, patients with recalcitrant...
Disrupting assumptions: how to teach queer concepts to speech and language therapists
Policy requiring speech and language therapy courses in America to include multicultural content in their courses was only formally introduced in 1994. Yet sexual orientation was still considered a controversial topic at this time, and it was only in the...
Ethnic inequalities in hearing aid use
Recent events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have once again highlighted health inequalities experienced by people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Our Editors’ Choice paper shows that there are inequalities in hearing aid use and includes the stark finding that ethnicity is...
