You searched for "assistive"
Nasal nitric oxide – an inflammatory marker in paediatric allergic rhinitis?
Nasal nitric oxide (nNO) is mainly produced in the paranasal sinus mucosa and was shown in some studies to have increased expression in allergic rhinitis (AR). Although it represents a potential non-invasive tool for AR measurement, there remains no consensus...
Smoking causes cancer – so what’s new?
You may well ask what is the novel value of a paper looking at smoking habits in patients with confirmed head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), but this paper highlights some pertinent points for clinical practice in the current...
Cystic fibrosis – sinus surgery delays chronic Gram-negative lung infection
This prospective clinical follow-up study is of 106 patients with cystic fibrosis in Copenhagen. Morbidity and mortality in CF are significantly associated with pulmonary colonisation and infection, usually with Gram-negative bacteria. Initially this can be well treated with antibiotics until...
When you regret an implant!
Cochlear implants (CIs) offer a solution to hearing loss not helped by conventional hearing aids. CIs help in improving speech recognition scores. While significant, it is not sufficient to provide satisfaction in some implantees. Alignment between expectations and realistic outcomes...
Newborn sensorineural hearing loss – what is the incidence?
In the last two decades, the introduction of newborn screening for hearing loss has dramatically lowered the average age of newborn hearing loss diagnosis to around two to three months of age. The benefits of early diagnosis are manifold, enabling...
COVID-19 and dysphagia in critically ill patients: a reflection of some findings
Dysphagia was a common occurrence in patients admitted to intensive care units (ITU) during the pandemic. This paper explores data from 26 ITUs over 12 months during 2020-2021. Findings from 235 patients admitted with Delta and subsequent Covid variants who...
How satisfying can a rhinoplasty be?
Rhinoplasty has seen an exponential rise in its uptake over the last few decades globally, offering patients a way to surgically correct the external appearance of the nose with the aim to improve cosmesis. Whilst the success of the procedure...
What can we tell about swallow physiology from a bedside clinical assessment?
Knowledge about swallowing physiology has greatly increased with the use of instrumental assessments such as videofluoroscopy (VFS). The authors of this paper performed an analysis of data obtained from 60 stroke patients who were assessed via a clinical swallow examination...
Effectiveness of oral pressure therapy in obstructive sleep apnoea: a systematic analysis
Oral pressure therapy (OPT) is a relatively new form of therapy for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Paradoxically it seems to work even though it creates a vacuum in the oral cavity as opposed to the gold standard of continuous positive...
Hypoglossal stimulation for OSA
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is a highly effective treatment for moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), but suffers significantly from poor patient adherence. This paper reports the three-year outcomes of a prospective multicentre cohort study examining the effect of hypoglossal...
Postoperative ultrasound surveillance in patients undergoing hemithyroidectomy
Hemithyroidectomy, as opposed to total thyroidectomy with radioiodine remnant ablation, is now increasingly undertaken for low-risk, differentiated thyroid cancer. If on histology, this proves ‘high risk’, completion thyroidectomy is done fairly soon. In this retrospective study, a total of 105...
