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3997 results found

Does the season affect the diagnosis of vestibular disorders?

There are mixed results in the literature regarding seasonal variation in the presentation of various peripheral vestibular disorders. In this large population study involving over 20,000 patients recruited from 116 ENT practices across Germany, the authors analysed the demographic characteristics...

Are elective neck dissections needed during salvage laryngectomy?

There has recently been a move away from elective neck dissections in the setting of salvage laryngectomy. This has mainly resulted from an appreciation of the increase in morbidity, in particular pharyngocutaneous fistula formation, and an improvement in cross-sectional imaging...

Assessing post-extubation dysphagia on the intensive care unit

The incidence of post-extubation dysphagia (PED) is reported to be about 12% in the general ICU population and around 18% in patients admitted to ICU as emergencies. PED was found to be an independent predictor of 28-day and 90-day mortality....

Delays in oral cancer

This is a review from Canada where they attempt to relate delays in oral cancer presentation to treatment and the impact on stage, diagnosis and survival. They recognise that potentially the most significant delay is between the patient first noticing...

Helicobacter pylori infection delays mucociliary clearance in the nose

Chronic rhinosinusitis is not uncommonly a difficult condition to treat and therefore any possible association of this condition with factors outside the nose and sinuses is the subject of worthwhile research. Impairment of mucociliary clearance is paramount to upper respiratory...

Electrodes and the stapedial reflex

This study had two main objectives: testing the efficiency of the sequential stimulation of four different electrodes versus a single electrode on the threshold of the stapedial reflex; and correlating the values with the minimum comfort level (MCL). The study...

Significance of abnormal retropharyngeal nodes in head and neck cancer

Abnormal retropharyngeal lymph nodes (RLN) have prognostic relevance for patients with oral, oropharyngeal or nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). However, consensus on the evaluation and management of abnormal RLN in these patients is lacking. The authors of this paper provided...

Hearing disability questionnaires

This is a very interesting study concerning the validity and readability of 10 hearing disability English language questionnaires available for clinical use. The questionnaires were assessed against the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework (WHO-ICF)....

Swallow this: management of dysphagia post-stroke

We know that between 50% and 80% of people who have had a stroke present with swallowing difficulties that may be associated with even a small lesion of the cortical or subcortical brain regions. This article provides an up-to-date overview...

Follow-up of NF2 patients with ABRs, SDS and MRI

Hearing loss is one of the earliest manifestations in vestibular schwannomas with 60% of the patients having high frequency loss. Several metabolic and mechanical factors influencing the cochlea and cochlear nerve have been implicated in the hearing decline noted in...

‘Pen’doscope - writing in a reduction in healthcare delivery costs

Optimal management of cleft lip and palate requires a multidisciplinary team approach to treatment, with the goal being maintenance of facial growth and improvement in speech and hearing, in addition to closure of the cleft. This can be especially challenging...

Lingual tonsils and obstrucive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS)

Obstructive sleep apnoea can be due to narrowing of the retrolingual space by hypertrophic lingual tonsils. The authors studied 11 patients (five males and six females with a mean age of 44.3 years and a mean BMI of 28.6). All...