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Zinc and rhinosinusitis

Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) in general, and those with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) in particular, have been shown to have down-regulation of tight junction genes. Zinc, on the other hand, is well-known for its role in immune regulation and deficiency...

Interleukins, cilia and polyps

Interleukins (ILs) including IL13 (Th2 cytokine) are inflammatory mediators and their role in asthma has been detailed before. This study explores IL13 receptor expression in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). The authors investigate protein and mRNA expression levels of...

Anatomy revision

This article is well-received as an article that goes into appropriate length and depth regarding the embryology and subsequent growth of the paediatric nose (internal and external), nasopharynx and all of the individual sinuses. It has excellent line diagrams of...

Semantic fluency test to investigate deaf children

Semantic fluency task (SFT) is used to measure lexical organisation and executive function across the lifespan and requires participants to name examples from a particular semantic category in a specific period of time. Using this test, the authors investigated a...

Neck dissection in adenoid cystic carcinoma is a risk worth taking?

This paper from Stanford University presents impressive figures to guide the debate on the extent of surgical management in adenoid cystic disease. Adenoid cystic carcinomas present a particular problem in that they can recur even after 20 years. They have...

Reduce medical errors by improving communication: supporting vulnerable people

This article starts by emphasising that communication failures are a fairly common cause of medical errors. They highlight that people with dysarthria can experience significant communication difficulties and are at particular risk of this type of breakdown in care. People...

Be mindful of exposure

This is a topic which has been highlighted before in the Hearing Research series, as the evidence base regarding the specific impact of acoustic trauma on the auditory system has been expanding regularly in the last few years. This particular...

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...

Saline irrigation in CRSwNP after surgery

This article, largely from Germany, aims to prove the effectiveness of nasal saline irrigation in postoperative patients with CRS with nasal polyps. A prospective, single blinded randomised trial was designed with an irrigation and non-irrigation arm. Patients who underwent sinonasal...

Playing hide and seek with parathyroid glands

This article focuses on revision surgery with respect to parathyroid glands. Clearly the stakes are higher with respect to the patients’ risks, but also with respect to the revision surgeon in finding the offending gland in scar tissue, where someone...

Laryngeal oedema as a side-effect of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) such as Imatinib are increasingly being used to treat haematological and solid malignancies. These agents have revolutionised the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia in particular. Although better tolerated than most conventional chemotherapy drugs, multiple side-effects have...