Journal Reviews
Audiometric outcomes following endoscopic stapes surgery
Adding to the evidence base for endoscopic stapes surgery, this systematic review and analysis of outcomes sought to establish the efficacy and safety of this approach. This review included 14 studies with a pooled sample of 314 adult patients. The...
Gender inequality across medical specialties in the United States
The authors of this study collected and evaluated 4222 surveys of patient satisfaction ratings of male and female residents across subspecialties in the United States. Half of the evaluated residents were females, with first and second year residents being evaluated...
Preoperative prediction of pain outcomes in patients with trigeminal neuralgia
The authors of this retrospective study have developed a preoperative trigeminal neuralgia (TN) grading system for the preoperative prediction of long-term pain relief after microvascular decompression (MVD). Patients who had become refractory to or developed toxicity to carbamazepine or oxycarbamazepine...
Prolactinomas: when to operate
Prolactinomas are the most common functional pituitary adenomas, comprising 40% of all pituitary adenomas. There are consensus guidelines and several common management pathways. This article discusses the role of surgery for these patients. Following diagnosis, the goals of treatment are...
Laryngeal evaluation during COVID-19 using transcervical ultrasonography
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors highlight their protocol of transcutaneous laryngeal ultrasonography as an alternative to flexible fibreoptic laryngoscopy when appropriate. This is to reduce the risk of aerosolisation posed by laryngoscopy. Ultrasonography is a rapid, non-invasive...
A novel graft material for endoscopic tympanoplasty using the pre-tragal SMAS layer
The traditional biological graft materials for providing a scaffold for tympanic membrane reconstruction include temporalis fascia as well as conchal and tragal perichondrium/cartilage. This group from Taiwan present a novel graft option using the superficial musculo-aponeurotic system (SMAS) layer. They...
Mental practice could be a great COVID-19 solution for delivering swallow rehab
Motor imagery is defined as the process of voluntarily generating a mental image of a motor function without actually doing said function. Mental practice (MP) is the process of doing this repeatedly; practising it. There is some evidence that this...
Vocal fold motion impairment following intubation – how likely is it to recover?
Ed’s Choice reviews a timely paper investigating prolonged intubation on vocal fold motion. The current scientific literature is dominated by studies examining COVID-19 and its widespread effects on health and healthcare delivery but will be old news by the time...
Does use of pectoralis muscle myocutaneous flap (PMMCF) reduce postoperative pharyngocutaneous fistula complication after salvage laryngectomy?
Salvage laryngectomy for recurrent laryngeal carcinoma following failed radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy is associated with high postoperative complication rate. The primary aim of this paper was to assess whether use of muscle myocutaneous flap (PMMCF) as an interposition graft reduces the...
How to manage the concha bullosa in FESS
It is an interesting concept to assess how much impact the presence of a large concha bullosa (CB) has on both severity of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and also postoperative outcomes after FESS. The authors accept that the paper has limitations...
A classification of a new cell - the retrosphenoid cell
This is a concise paper which describes a previously undefined type of cell within the sphenoethmoidal complex. It identifies the retrosphenoid cell, differentiated from an Onodi cell by being entirely within the posterior wall of the sphenoid sinus, lying between...
COVID-19 and medical practice
The pandemic has deeply affected all types of medical and surgical practice and even publications. In this issue, the lead article was on the French consensus on ENT practice during the pandemic. In ENT practice, both patients and health workers...
