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Harnessing technology for the benefit of children with significant communication difficulties
This article describes future needs in provision and research in the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) aids for children with significant communication difficulties. The authors highlight the needs of users and the opportunities that technology could provide in...
Snap: do voice patients’ self-ratings match the professionals or the machines?
Self-rating by people with voice disorders and perceptual assessments by speech and language therapists are generally quicker and cheaper than acoustic voice analysis. Reports, with small sample sizes and mixed participant groups, on whether these measures are associated have demonstrated...
Personal music systems are causing hearing loss
Sitting next to a teenager on a train with their iPod turned up loud enough for the entire carriage to hear is annoying, most will agree. Perhaps I might educate them about the risks of ‘music’ (if you can call...
Hilotherapy for facial surgery patients?
Hilotherapy involves administering regulated cold compression through a facemask. The principle of this treatment involves cyotherapy as a traditional treatment for reducing inflammation, pain and swelling following trauma. It is believed that using hilotherapy (Hilotherm®), which uses a mask to...
Is it possible to fix condylar neck fractures with one plate?
Fractures of the condylar neck are fairly common and account for over 25% of all mandible fractures. Over the years a number of modalities have been used to fix these fractures. Direct reduction is complicated by the overlying proximity of...
Finding the elusive parathyroid glands
While reading in the literature about new advances in knowledge and surgical techniques, it is often easy to lose track of the longstanding knowledge that we all acquired during our training. This is why this article on the anatomy and...
Outpatient closure of CSF leaks: a good idea or a step too far?
After day-case septoplasty, day case thyroidectomy, now day case CSF leak repair – has the pendulum moved too far? The authors put forward a convincing case for what, only 10 years ago, would have sounded like a provocation. They quote...
Deep space neck infections – salivary gland as source is commoner in elderly patients
Whilst deep space neck infections (DNI) can originate from many sources, dental and salivary glands are commonly the culprit. This paper details 44 patients treated for deep space neck infections originating from salivary gland and compares them to a previously...
Marshmallows for swallowing assessments!
The complaint of ‘food sticking in my throat’ is one many of us will have heard several times in clinical practice. The authors of this study report the prevalence of this symptom to be between 5-8% in the general population...
Complication rates for grommet insertion in H&N cancer patients
Otitis Media (OM) can be the direct result of H&N malignancy itself or secondary to treatment of malignancy. Both surgery and radiotherapy can cause lasting changes to the physiologic function of the ET, middle ear, tympanic membrane and ear canal....
Cochlear implant electrode insertion technique
Atraumatic cochlear implant insertion techniques (so-called ‘soft surgery’) are now standard practice in most centres for all cases (no longer just for attempted hearing preservation cases). This has led to several studies examining cochlear trauma and electrode insertion force. In...
