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Polysolmnography and laryngomalacia severity

Laryngomalacia represents the single most common cause of stridor in infants. Most cases are self-resolving, but a proportion of children will require surgical intervention. This group aimed to analyse the efficacy of polysomnography in determining the severity of laryngomalacia in...

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...

Microsurgical trainees to avoid strenuous exercises?

It is commonly believed among microsurgeons that over-exertion can impair microsurgical performance. The authors aimed to investigate if they could prove this theory and compared the performance of medical students, postgraduate trainees and expert controls who were microsurgery tutors. A...

Blocked nose in children with allergic rhinitis

Nasal obstruction is a classic symptom in children with allergic rhinitis. While the nasal obstructive disorders including septal deformity, turbinate hyperplasia and adenoidal enlargement are widely recognised in adult nasal blockage, their relationship with paediatric allergic rhinitis however, is scarcely...

Using SNOT-22 to predict revision sinus cases

A simple way of predicting which patients will require revision endoscopic surgery does not yet exist. This study, which is a prospective, longitudinal cohort study, part of the UK national audit, aims to predict this by using a relatively simple,...

Recovery of vestibular function after vestibular neuritis

It is well known that recovery from vestibular neuritis (VN) is not solely mediated through central vestibular compensation, but also at the peripheral level. The authors conducted a prospective study to track the dynamic changes in recovery from vestibular neuritis...

Can prediction models help identify dysphagia in ventilated patients?

Dysphagia commonly affects patients in intensive care units (ICU), particularly those on mechanical ventilation, and is associated with high risk of mortality. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to identify predictors for dysphagia in ventilated ICU patients by summarising existing...

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...

Persistent dysphonia due to cricothyroid muscle dystonia – should we be requesting laryngeal EMGs for non-resolving ‘functional’ dysphonia?

This article is an interesting report of a case of persistent voice problems affecting a 43-year-old physician that significantly compromised her ability to converse and communicate at work. Specifically, she had a fluctuating voice quality that would ‘choke off’, combined...

Time to endoscopic sinus surgery and outcomes

A well written prospective study, which demonstrates that patients who require endoscopic sinus surgery, should be operated on without long delay since this achieves better and more sustained outcomes. There were 1493 patients undergoing primary nasal surgery who had completed...