Search

What you need to know about recent advances in genetics of hearing loss in the newborn

Identifying the underlying genetic cause of hearing loss in newborns can improve dramatically the early diagnosis and appropriate intervention. Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder at birth, affecting approximately two out of 1000 newborns [1]. Congenital impaired hearing...

Endoscopic ear surgery in children

The benefits of endoscopes in otologic surgery, which have become increasingly widely appreciated in recent years, are very well suited to the management of paediatric middle ear disease. Although one might imagine that the smaller ear canal of a child...

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...

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...

Hidden genetic disorders in children that may present to the otolaryngologist

Background Among the many hundreds of children presenting to the otolaryngology clinic are a few whose symptoms are due to an underlying genetic condition. In most cases the underlying syndrome is obvious and has already been diagnosed, such as the...

Endoscopic middle ear surgery for cholesteatoma treatment

A critical question when any new technique is proposed is ‘does it work?’ In this article Daniele Marchioni and Davide Soloperto discuss the success rates of endoscopic ear surgery for cholesteatoma. Introduction Surgical management of cholesteatoma is still a controversial...

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...

Sniffing out the evidence – COVID-19 and loss of sense of smell and taste

Louis Pasteur once observed: “In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.” Professor Hopkins was certainly prepared when a few anecdotes of smell problems started to accumulate early in the pandemic’s course. Post-viral olfactory loss is nothing...

Microneedles enable inner ear precision medicine

Developing safe, reliable and efficient ways to deliver therapeutics into the cochlea is a key challenge. In this article, the authors share their work to develop microneedles to address this challenge. The era of precision medicine of the inner ear...

Health related quality of life measures as outcome parameters in middle ear diseases

Surely the only outcome needed for post-surgical ears is a better PTA? Marcus Neudert argues there should be more to it than that. To draw a comprehensive picture of the disease-associated restrictions in patients with chronic otitis media, audiometric outcome...

Auditory brainstem implant results in adults and children

Background The auditory brainstem implant (ABI) has been developed from cochlear implant (CI) technology and is indicated for people who have anatomical abnormalities of the cochlea or dysfunction of the auditory nerve. The majority of people who have received an...

The emergence of in-office ventilation tubes for the treatment of otitis media in children

In-office tympanostomy tube systems offer a quicker, anaesthesia-free alternative to traditional surgery for children, with promising outcomes and reduced costs. Tympanostomy tube or grommet insertion is the most common surgery performed on children worldwide. Whilst a relatively short and straightforward...