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Friendly bacteria in the ear nose and throat to combat the bad…

The author presents a thorough review of bacterial interference and the studies that have been conducted in common ENT conditions. The simple concept is that a strong population of normal flora will interfere with colonisation and subsequent infection by pathogenic...

Early intensive aphasia therapy in stroke patients

The impact of aphasia following stroke is devastating. Very early aphasia rehabilitation studies have been the subject of ongoing debate. This paper describes the comparison of a very early aphasia therapy regimen with a historical ‘usual care’ control group after...

How interaural level differences differ between children with bilateral cochlear implants and their normally-hearing peers

A group in the Netherlands investigated interaural level differences (ILDs) in children who were bilaterally implanted with cochlear implants (CIs) and compared their performance to their normally-hearing peers. ILDs are used to localise sound and rely on the high-frequency cues....

Multi-layered repair of lateral sphenoid CSF rhinorrhoea

This case series describes the author’s results with repairing lateral sphenoid encephalocoeles in seven patients. Alloderm inlay with abdominal fat onlay and nasoseptal flap onlay repair resulted in a 100% success rate with no recurrence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhoea,...

Tongue twisters to evaluate speech disorders

This interesting study compared errors in tongue twisters produced by adult patients with dysarthria with those produced by age-matched healthy controls. Audio recordings of all patients while they were vocalising tongue twisters were studied. The authors marked one word prominently...

Managing the thyroglossal duct cyst

Although the operation to remove thyroglossal cysts and their tracts is commonly performed, a full understanding of the possible anatomical locations of the tracts may be less appreciated. This article helps the reader understand the possible variations available which should...

Sinus surgery effects on asthma patients

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and asthma are related. The authors identified a gap in the literature and designed this study with a relatively large sample size of 86 patients. They included patients with comorbid asthma and CRS with or without polyps...

Another use for Tisseel – plugging of the round window

After insertion of a cochlear implant electrode through the round window, there are several methods of sealing the perilymph leak and in my experience fascia (with varying amounts of attached muscle) seems to be most commonly used. Stephen O’Leary’s group...

Velopharyngeal insufficiency after adenotonsillectomy

The authors retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 320 paediatric patients who underwent either tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy or adenotonsillectomy, under a single paediatric ENT surgeon. Patients with pre-existing velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) were excluded, as assessed by preoperative testing for nasal air...

Back to basics: nasendoscopy beats CT, again!

There are few otolaryngologists (or patients) who have not been confronted with a computed tomography scan referring to a deviated septum. In a very similar way to the accidental findings of sinus mucosal thickening, the clinician is left in a...