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Balloon dilatation of the eustachian tube - largely very safe but not entirely without risk

Consent is a fundamental part of our daily working lives. This is something as simple as consent to examine a patient, consent to undertake a procedure as minor as taking blood, through to consent for a major operation. Whatever the...

Head and Neck Vascular Anomalies: A Practical Case-Based Approach

I was genuinely delighted when this book arrived for review. Usually I get something on vertigo which props up one end of the book case gathering dust. A quick skim through this instantly told me the section editor had blessed...

Benign oesophageal strictures: overview and management strategies

Benign oesophageal strictures may have several attributable causes including caustic injuries, long-term acid reflux, eosinophilic oesophagitis, anastomotic strictures and endoscopic therapy. Endoscopic dilation via bougies or balloon dilators may treat most strictures successfully and satisfactorily. However, in some situations treatment...

Corticosteroid prescribing in ENT - are we at risk of being sued?

Of medications leading to malpractice claims, corticosteroids comprise the third most common. They are used widely and have a significant side-effect profile: hypertension, lipodystrophy, diabetes, avascular necrosis of the femoral head, peptic ulceration and psychiatric reactions to name but a...

Immunosuppresants and ototoxicity

There is a wide range of immunosuppressant drugs ranging from calcineurin inhibitors (e.g. cyclosporine), anti-folic agents (e.g. methotrexate) to anti-TNF and monoclonal antibodies, many of which could be ototoxic. The authors performed a systematic review assessing ototoxicity secondary to immunosuppressant...

Balloon eustachian tuboplasty and inferior turbinectomy

This Taiwanese prospective case-control study looked at concurrent inferior turbinectomy (via submucosal turbinectomy) and balloon eustachian tuboplasty on symptoms related to eustachian tube dysfunction. A total of 50 patients who underwent inferior turbinectomy with balloon eustachian tuboplasty were recruited prospectively...

Multiple surgeries for RRP – does a greater number of operations result in a worse voice outcome?

Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) of the larynx remains a challenging condition to treat, with a number of affected patients requiring multiple operations to remove recurrent disease over the course of their lifetime. At the most severe end of the spectrum,...

Does balloon tuboplasty work in the long term, and how can we measure outcomes?

There is much interest and debate at ENT conferences and within current literature about the role of balloon dilatation techniques for Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD), a condition which we still only have limited understanding of, and which can be challenging...

Peripheral nerve stimulation for chronic refractory pain

Peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) plays an important role in treating chronic refractory pain syndromes that manifest in limited distributions and overlap with areas of neurologic innervation. The process is generally thought to capitalise on the inhibition and activation of pain-related...

What we need to know about the new frontier of inner ear therapies

This is an interesting and topical review of the emerging biotechnology and pharmaceutical solutions for hearing loss and related conditions such as tinnitus. This paper suggests we are on the cusp of a very large step-change in the way we...

Modified subciliary approach to the orbital floor

Fractures involving the lateral midface and orbital floor are routinely treated by maxillofacial surgeons. The surgical management requires access to the facial skeleton to reposition and free the soft tissues. There are three main approaches to the orbital floor: infraorbital;...