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Previous radiotherapy does not cause worse outcomes in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer

Radiation exposure from nuclear incidents, especially in childhood, is known to increase the risk of thyroid cancer. This large retrospective study from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre sought to determine if thyroid cancers in patients with prior exposure to...

Should intratympanic steroids be the first line treatment for sudden sensorineural hearing loss?

This article looked at whether intratympanic steroids (ITS) provide more benefits over systemic steroid therapy (SST) as initial therapy in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL). This meta-analysis study, based on published RCTs, concluded that ITS treatment exhibited...

Medical control of allergic rhinitis in children

The authors of this randomised trial aim to answer an important question – which is better: daily versus on demand use of intranasal steroids (fluticasone probionate) or antihistamines (levocetirizine dihydrochloride) for symptomatic control of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis secondary to pollen? The...

eNOS and OME

The pathophysiology of otitis media with effusion (OME) is multifaceted. The authors tackled the nitrous oxide (NO) and platelet activating factor (PAF) pathways and the genetic polymorphism of endothelial nitrous oxide synthetase (eNOS). DNA analysis by PCR and restriction fragment...

PACT or Partners of Aphasic Clients Conversation Training

There is an increasing recognition that families and caregivers of patients require special training to manage their wards. PACT or Partners of aphasic patients Conversation Training is an initiative which aims to improve awareness of methods of communicating with aphasic...

Reviewing Meniere’s disease

This was a sizeable literature review (93 references) of not only the office-based treatments for Meniere’s disease but also the various aetiological theories regarding it. They also highlight the amended International Criteria for Meniere’s disease diagnosis (2015), comparing it against...

A beginner’s guide to endoscopic ear surgery (EES)

For some, this article will not provide them with anything new with respect to EES – in particular, the advantages of the technique and how to achieve them. However, for those surgeons who are debating whether to embark on the...

Surgery for class III malocclusions pharyngeal airway and sleep apnoea effects

Thirty-three patients from Brazil were assessed for obstructive sleep apnoea and hypopnoea syndrome pre- and six months postoperatively. The 33 patients were made up of nine having mandibular set back surgery, six maxillary advancement and 18 bi-maxillary surgery. They identified...

Day care or admission for aesthetic nasal surgery?

Day-care surgery is gaining in popularity throughout the surgical specialities due to economical constraints and patient convenience. However this is not without risk and a careful procedure by procedure evaluation should be performed to prove the suitability of this type...

Extrapolating lessons from vestibular schwannoma management

This paper presents a delightfully simple and sensible hypothesis for the management of benign schwannomas in the head and neck region. They have taken the approach used for the management of vestibular schwannomas and used the same principles to assess...

Sinus surgery effects on asthma patients

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and asthma are related. The authors identified a gap in the literature and designed this study with a relatively large sample size of 86 patients. They included patients with comorbid asthma and CRS with or without polyps...

Paediatric pituitary surgery - is it lagging behind?

Endoscopic sellar surgery, especially for adenomas, is a relatively safe, straightforward surgery with (mostly) reproducible results and few complications. However, the evolution of pituitary surgery was a long process, starting from open/transfrontal approaches all the way to transsphenoid to the...