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From clinical to academic – intervention research in SLT

There are many different research methods and designs that can be used to test the effectiveness of speech and language interventions. This article aims to describe those methods relevant to speech and language therapists working with a range of clients....

Surgery for snoring

The prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing is rapidly increasing. There is variable evidence for surgical treatments for snoring currently. This Belgian study was a retrospective review of 84 patients who underwent surgery for snoring between May 2011 and December 2015. A...

Inferior alveolar nerve recovery after ORIF fractured mandible

Mandibular fractures are quite common facial injuries, but aetiology varies with country and age. Common treatment options are open reduction and internal fixation via an intra-oral or extra-oral incision. Nerve injury or dysfunction is often seen preoperatively and may also...

Options for the endoscope and acquired cholesteatoma

This was a thought-provoking article examining the reasons why the authors believe that the endoscope is enabling an improved understanding of acquired cholesteatoma and its management. They describe in depth the ventilation pathways of the middle ear, and how they...

Rates of tonsillitis increase as rates of tonsillectomy reduce

This retrospective study sought to determine the effect of reduced rates of tonsillectomy in England and Wales, over a 13-year period, on rate of hospital admissions for the complications of acute tonsil infection (acute tonsillitis and quinsy), and hospital bed-day...

What blood tests should be requested to investigate vocal cord paralysis?

Patients who are discovered to have a vocal cord palsy with no obvious cause on history or examination routinely undergo investigations to exclude an underlying pathology. Cross-sectional imaging of the relevant recurrent laryngeal nerve is required, but considerable variability has...

Red flags in the development of childhood speech and language

Problems of speech and language in early childhood can influence a child’s emotional development, academic prowess and quality of life. This article is a consensus report from the Netherlands describing 124 clinical signs and 34 red flags of atypical speech...

Planning for end of life care: is there a role for the speech and language therapist?

This article presents a scoping review of the research literature on the role of speech and language therapists in palliative care settings. The researchers conducted a search using several electronic databases focusing on palliative, terminal and end of life (EOL)...

Should we reconsider induction chemotherapy in advanced stage laryngeal cancer?

Use of chemo-radiotherapy for advanced laryngeal cancer led to a major shift in treatment as an alternative to total laryngectomy. Despite widespread adoption of chemoradiotherapy, survival rates have not improved and the original premise of matching neoadjuvant chemotherapy tumour response...

How does the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) correlate with demographics and symptoms of patients?

The DHI is widely used to assess the self-perceived emotional, functional and physical disability in subjects with dizziness and balance problems. By studying the data of 568 patients retrospectively, the authors sought to determine the gender and age differences in...

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...