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Surgical technology and operating room safety failures: lessons from vascular and general surgery

Background – surgical technology and otolaryngology An estimated 234 million major surgical procedures are performed annually worldwide. This requires the interaction of multidisciplinary teams with varying contributions of surgical technology and therefore makes surgical procedures prone to multiple sources of...

The workplace environment and doctors’ health (ENT)

It is well established that doctors have higher levels of stress, depression and suicide than the general population [1] and most other professional groups (Figure 1 illustrates the factors that can make us ill). In addition they have high levels...

Anaesthesia for sleep nasendoscopy and snoring / obstructive sleep apnoea surgery

Surgery for sleep disordered breathing inevitably requires surgeon and anaesthetist to share the airway. Here, Edward Bick gives us the anaesthetic viewpoint, reiterating that communication is the key. A specific note is made of the anaesthetic technique for sleep nasendoscopy,...

Robotic head and neck surgery: current state of the art and future innovations

Technology and innovation has provided modern head and neck surgeons with successive generations of robotic surgical systems, fibre-optic lasers, and novel tools which have ushered in a new era of minimally invasive surgery for tumours of the pharynx and larynx....

Can we prevent chronic rhinosinusitis?

The old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ is considered by Professor Hopkins in respect to chronic rhinosinusitis, a condition affecting around 10% of the adult population and associated with huge impact on quality of life and economic cost. A...

Vocal cord paralysis: an update

The management of unilateral vocal cord paralysis has changed in the last few years: this has largely come about as a result of improvements in technology, meaning that medialisations are quicker and easier to perform than previously. This article will...

Laryngotracheal stenosis

Airway stenosis has been an enormous challenge to laryngologists since the dawn of the sub-specialty. Careful evaluation is essential, as this will determine the best treatment. We hear more from one of the UK’s leading airway centres. Until the advent...

Outreach to build capacity for surgical ear care in low-resource settings: challenges and opportunities

There are successful models for delivering complex ear surgery where resources may be more limited. Ear, nose and throat conditions are frequently overlooked when global health issues are considered, but hearing loss is the world’s most common sensory deficit, and...

Screening for hearing aid fittings – an approach for primary care

Introduction The communication difficulties related to hearing loss can lead to ‘depression, social withdrawal and problems with employment and access to information sources’ [1]. Furthermore, unmanaged hearing loss is associated with dementia, a poorer quality of life, depression, anxiety and...

Combined use of a hearing aid and a cochlear implant: a case study

When multi-channel cochlear implants (CIs) were first introduced in the 1980s, their use was restricted to people who derived no benefit from conventional amplification. Over the past three decades, however, the criteria for CIs has been relaxed considerably, and it...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and the vestibular system: a case study

This team of audiologists from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre discuss an eight year old with congenital CMV, a neonatal infection which is usually asymptomatic, and provide guidance on how to recognise the signs in the paediatric population, and screen...