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Stereotactic radiosurgery for pituitary adenomas

Residual and recurrent functioning pituitary adenomas can be difficult to delineate on postoperative MRI scans, making them difficult targets for stereotactic radio surgery. In such cases radiation delivery to the entire sellar has been utilised as a radio surgical equivalent...

Preoperative tumour embolisation

This review article analyses the role of preoperative endovascular tumour embolisation in the treatment of a variety of hypervascular head and neck lesions including juvenile nasal angiofibroma, glomus tumour, carotid body tumours, and meningioma. Although the concept of tumour embolisation...

Effects of nasal sprays on ciliary function

What do topical nasal sprays do to the nasal mucosa in the long term? This study reports the effect of corticosteroids, antihistamines and common preservatives in nasal sprays, benzalkonium chloride (BKC) and potassium sorbate (PS), on an in-vitro model of...

Endolymphatic sac surgery for Ménière’s disease

This is a very useful meta-analysis for those that perform surgery for Ménière’s disease. It specifically looked at differences in various forms of endolymphatic sac surgery (ESS). A total of 36 papers were included. The results: ESS controls vertigo in...

Cochlear implants in Ménière’s disease

This retrospective review firstly reminds us that a cochlear implant (CI) is possible with Ménière’s disease (MD) and provides a good account of what can be expected with a CI in patients with MD. Twenty MD patients who underwent cochlear...

Thyroid cancer: to dissect the neck or not?

This is a good review of the much-debated management of the neck in thyroid cancer. It discusses oncological goals that must be achieved whilst maintaining voice, swallowing and parathyroid function. A clear description is made of the common nodal basins...

Nasal peak inspiratory flow (NPIF) as a diagnostic tool for differentiating decongestable from structural nasal obstruction

Identification of the cause of nasal obstruction is critical before surgical intervention such as septoplasty. This study assesses changes in nasal peak inspiratory flow (NPIF) as a tool for discriminating decongestable versus structural obstruction. A cross-sectional study of 52 patients...

Postoperative complications in OSA patients

This well researched meta-analysis describes the various complications obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients may acquire after surgery. These American reviewers found that OSA patients after non-upper airway operations, were more like to suffer (compared to non-OSA patients), from the following...

Controlling tinnitus

The absence of sufficient evidence for the use of integrated sound generators for the management of tinnitus led the authors to conduct a randomised blind clinical trial in which they compared the use of a conventional hearing aid with a...

Passive smoking and rhinosinusitis

One would expect that subjects exposed to more passive smoke would have a significantly increased level of rhinosinusitis. This study looked at a reasonable number of sinusitis and control subjects (404 and 165) using hair nicotine as an assessment of...

Primary ossicular chain reconstruction in open-cavity mastoidectomy

The authors performed a retrospective analysis of 21 patients who had undergone primary reconstruction of the ossicular chain during canal-wall-down mastoidectomy. The ossiculoplasty technique used consisted of removal of the malleus head and division of tensor tympani, and rotation of...

A new septoplasty technique

This article describes a novel septoplasty technique to correct a cartilaginous deflection. Although it took a while to understand it as the operative photographs were not very helpful it is an interesting concept. The author excises an inferior strip and...