Journal Reviews
Diagnostic features of acute invasive fungal sinusitis
Acute invasive fungal sinusitis (AIFS) is a rare but frequently lethal condition, commonly associated with a high morbidity among those that survive. It has gained recent media attention on account of its increased incidence following infection with (and treatment for)...
Steroid use in acute acoustic trauma
Acute acoustic trauma (AAT) injuries include noise-induced damage to inner and middle ear presenting as hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo. Classic presentation is sensorineural hearing loss with an intact tympanic membrane. The authors carried out a case-control study in military...
Inspiratory peak flow and tracheostomy
The evaluation of the degree of laryngeal obstruction to indicate a tracheostomy has always been a subjective decision. The authors correlated the visual laryngeal obstruction by flexible nasolaryngoscopy and the peak inspiratory flow using a pocket peak inspiratory flowmeter. Twenty-two...
Is clinical HIT as good as vHIT in the emergency room?
Establishing the cause of acute vestibular syndrome (AVS) is critical in the first few hours of presentation in the emergency department. The first question to ask is, “is it due to a peripheral vestibular pathology or a stroke?” This is...
McIsaac scores in tonsillitis
Acute tonsillitis is usually caused by a viral infection, however often antibiotics are prescribed without a confirmed diagnosis of a bacterial infection. The Modified Centor (McIsaac) criteria, which include fever (>38°c), tonsillar exudate, no cough, anterior cervical lymphadenitis and age,...
Do certain chronic medications increase dysphagia in older people?
Oropharyngeal dysphagia is known to affect a high number of older people in the community, in care homes and in acute geriatric admissions to hospital. The authors of this study have recognised that many older people take drugs for chronic...
