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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...

Subannular T-tubes for adhesive otitis

This Italian study looked at the success rates of a novel method to manage adhesive otitis media (chronic otitis media with adhesion of the tympanic membrane to the promontory). The authors looked at 22 patients with unilateral chronic adhesive otitis...

Titanium bobbins are prone to water penetration

There is limited evidence that swimming with grommets increases ear infections and most clinicians advise swimming with ventilation tubes is acceptable. Concerns may persist especially among parents. This paper evaluates the amount of different liquids (soapy water, sea water, chlorinated...

Submental island flap to reconstruct the lower lip

The lips are necessary for oral competence, cosmesis, speech and feeding. Non-melanoma cancers can affect the lips, and the lower lips are about 80% more likely to be affected. A large number of these cancers are squamous cell carcinomas. Treatment...

How the world sees facial palsy patients

This paper from Australia gives an insightful perspective on the impact of facial paralysis on patients, and may explain the well-documented poor quality of life scores in this patient group, particularly those ‘successfully reconstructed’ with surgery. It explores how the...

A rare superior tongue tie

The authors present a very rare case of ankyloglossia superior syndrome: first described in 1911 but with only 14 case reports in English literature it was of sufficient interest to discuss the aetiology, classification and management. As the palatal shelves...

Occupational hazards affecting otolaryngologists

This is a questionnaire survey which received responses from 323 clinicians practising otolaryngology. The grades ranged from consultants to junior doctors. It was noted that nearly half of these respondents suffered from some form of musculoskeletal pain and it highlights...

Mondini dysplasia and cochlear implantation

Approximately 20-28% of sensorineural hearing loss in children arises due to a cochlear malformation. Mondini dysplasia includes a cochlear with one and a half turns and an incomplete interscalar septum. Cochlear implantation is a common treatment protocol for children with...

Parkinson’s humour: recognising social communication difficulties

Parkinson’s results in a progressive motor disease with symptoms including tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia. However, people with Parkinson’s also experience non-motor symptoms such as cognitive difficulties that can impact social communication, often due to their co-existing speech difficulties, auditory and...

Use it or lose it…

The ageing auditory system: about 15 years ago, you could probably count on one hand the number of research papers on this subject. Now it seems one of the hot topics of discussion and investigation. This is, it seems, quite...

Feel what you say: a framework to demonstrate the emotional response to aphasia is intertwined with the emotional toll

The authors start this paper by flagging a recent study demonstrating that speech and language therapists in clinical practice rarely have time to focus on emotional issues in relation to aphasia. Yet, people with aphasia describe the close relationship between...