Journal Reviews
Voice after posterior cordotomy: we think voice is bad, patients think it’s better!
Bilateral vocal fold immobility (BVFI) is a condition that can affect voice with an impact on quality of life (QOL). Surgical trauma from damage to bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerves, such as from previous thyroid, parathyroid, or mediastinal surgery are common...
Salt in surgical simulation
Cheap, easily accessible and realistic methods of reproducing surgery through simulation are the ideal. Here a group from Tokyo, Japan report on a method of producing 3D printed skulls and mandibles to use for simulated surgery. A high resolution CT...
Epley Manoeuvre: number of times it is required and its diagnostic value
Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is a common condition but if inadequately treated or wrongly diagnosed, can prolong the distressing symptoms of momentary dizziness, nausea and visual disturbances which can be due to other causes and deteriorate quality of life. Studies...
How well are we managing epistaxis cases?
Epistaxis constitutes 34.5% of all emergency admissions to otolaryngology departments nation-wide. Presently there are no detailed consensus guidelines for this commonest emergency, and there is tremendous variation of practice. Quite often, non-ENT trained doctors manage this emergency. This paper reviews...
Influence of smoking on vocal fold polyps
A vocal fold polyp is a benign lesion related to phonotrauma which induces upregulation of inflammatory processes and histological changes can occur in the epithelium and lamina propria. Whether smoking produces additional or enhanced changes is the subject of this...
An office procedure to close small tympanic membrane perforations
Various methods have been described for closure of small tympanic membrane perforations, ranging from paper patching to use of fibrin glue. The procedure needs to be non-invasive and cost effective. Use of Terdermis to close perforations of all sizes has...
Use of topical steroids and antibiotics, compared to systemic antibiotics in the treatment of acute rhinusinusitis
Acute rhinusinusitis is mainly initiated by viral infections. Bacterial infection is usually superadded. The inflammatory cascade upregulates the pro-inflammatory mediators resulting in pain, nasal obstruction and nasal discharge. Local application of steroids and antibiotics could provide a higher concentration of...
Voice therapy is an effective treatment for presbyphonia
The quality of an individual’s voice often declines with age. This deterioration occurs firstly as a result of vocal fold atrophy secondary to histologic alteration of the vocal fold mucosa as well as atrophy of the laryngeal musculature. Phonatory efficiency...
Gamma Knife surgery for persistent or recurrent trigeminal neuralgia
Treatment of trigeminal neuralgia continues to be challenging. The treatment options include pharmacotherapy, or failing this, surgical options like microvascular decompression (MVD), radiofrequency ablation, pencil beam convolution and Gamma Knife surgery. The authors of this article have presented a series...
Active intervention in small schwannomas associated with higher incidence of long-term hearing loss
This article represents collaborative data of hearing outcomes from tertiary centres in Norway and the United States. They studied data of patients with less than or equal to 3cm vestibular schwannoma who underwent observation, primary microsurgery and Gamma Knife surgery...
Surgery of vestibular schwannomas with peritumoral oedema
This is an interesting retrospective study evaluating peritumoral oedema on magnetic resonance images and correlating it with the intra-operative tumour characteristics and outcome. The study results found that vestibular schwannomas with peritumoral oedema were associated with greater incidence of hypervascularity...
Describing the most useful OSA assessment?
This article sets out to comprehensibly describe drug induced sleep endoscopy and its role in determining the level of obstruction in patients with OSA. The advantages described include the fact that other techniques, including Muller’s manoeuvre, have significant variation in...
