Journal Reviews
Indication and timing of electrodiagnostic tests in facial palsy
This excellent review describes the benefits and limitations of electrodiagnostic testing for patients with facial paralysis. Tests such as Schirmer, stapedial reflex and electrogustometry have been largely replaced by neurophysiologic tests like nerve excitability test (NET), electroneuronography (ENoG), surface electromyography...
Core biopsies are good enough for lymphomas
This paper, from the South of England, has reviewed ultrasound-guided core needle biopsies over a six-year period investigating the use of the detection of head and neck lymphomas. There were 367 samples included from 226 patients; 215 of the 226...
International classification of bilateral vestibulopathy (BVP)
In the past few years the Bárány Society have been standardising the diagnostic criteria for various vestibular disorders – International Classification of Vestibular Disorders (ICVD). Diagnosis of BVP relies on history, bedside clinical assessment and objective vestibular tests. The authors...
Risk of malignancy in non-diagnostic thyroid FNACs
Thyroid nodules are present in between 21-68% of the general population. The evaluation of these nodules to exclude thyroid carcinoma includes fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and a non-diagnostic cytology result occurs between 8-20% of the time. This retrospective cohort study...
Margin control using optical techniques in head and neck surgery
Emerging optical techniques such as high-resolution microendoscopy (HRME) are currently being examined for their reliability in discriminating benign from neoplastic epithelium. These techniques may offer the potential to detect the margin of an upper aerodigestive tract tumour in a non-invasive...
Vestibular migraine – the story so far and the work still to do
This interesting discussion paper begins with an overview of the background to the development of vestibular migraine as a separate diagnostic category. It discusses in some depth the diagnostic uncertainties in the context of an entity without a biomarker and...
