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Communicating with patients in 
‘Plain English’

Physicians have long been accused of using unnecessarily complicated language and impenetrable jargon as a way of maintaining their status, prestige and high earnings-potential, bamboozling the public and excluding them from meaningful discussion as part of what George Bernard Shaw...

Developing medical devices for children: opportunities and challenges

The development of medical devices for infants and children lags significantly behind the development of devices for adults. While in the United States the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set up incentives for developing child age-specific pharmaceuticals, there is...

Radiology of referred otalgia

Otalgia is a common presenting complaint to Ear Nose and Throat Departments. Otalgia is either primary or secondary (referred) [1]. Referred otalgia is a ‘red flag’ symptom and can be a diagnostic challenge for clinicians and radiologists as the pathology...

Role of interventional neuroradiology in otorhinolarygological pathology 
– a brief review

Introduction Since its advent in 1964 when Dotter percutaneously dilated a stenosed femoral artery [1], interventional radiology has undergone tremendous advancement in both imaging and devices that have enabled the operator (interventional radiologist) to access very distal small vasculature and...

Thoughts on war: von Clausewitz revisited

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall...

Maxillofacial and neck surgery in Iraq and Afghanistan

Introduction Over the past 150 years, military personnel wounded in action had a survival rate of approximately 80% [1]. During the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, those servicemen wounded in action have a 90.4% survival rate [2]. During the...

Discovery in the genetics of complex disease: Otitis media

Otitis media (OM), a common disease of childhood, is considered to be a complex trait with multiple genetic and environmental factors expected to contribute to a child’s risk of developing recurrent acute OM (rAOM; ≥3 episodes in 6 months or...

Coblation tongue channelling

After uvulopalatoplasty, the tendency is to focus on the tongue base as the next anatomical area to address in the management of snoring and sleep-disordered breathing. In this article, Glen Burgess describes the technique of tongue channelling, to reduce the...

Anaesthesia for sleep nasendoscopy and snoring / obstructive sleep apnoea surgery

Surgery for sleep disordered breathing inevitably requires surgeon and anaesthetist to share the airway. Here, Edward Bick gives us the anaesthetic viewpoint, reiterating that communication is the key. A specific note is made of the anaesthetic technique for sleep nasendoscopy,...

Sleep apnoea in children with craniofacial syndromes

Whilst snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea are relatively common diagnoses in paediatric ENT, children with craniofacial syndromes take the problem to the next level. Robert Nash and Michelle Wyatt describe the Great Ormond Street multidisciplinary approach to treating this complex...

Giacomo Puccini’s laryngeal cancer

Giacomo Puccini, one of the best known composers of all time, was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer and died from the disease in 1924. In this article, Rosario Marchese-Ragona and Alessandro Martini describe Puccini’s experience of the disease with quotes from...

Advances in vestibular function testing

Vestibular function testing has historically been limited by difficulties in testing individual parts of the vestibular apparatus. Jas Sandhu describes new tests available to clinicians that address this problem. Advances in vestibular function testing Vestibular function testing has historically been...