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Botulinum toxin in ENT

This comprehensive review neatly summarises non-cosmetic uses of botulinum toxin within otorhinolaryngology, it is perhaps easy to forget the medical use of botulinum toxin has now been approved for the last thirty years. Its overall safety profile places it as...

To monitor or not to monitor

This is a report on an e-mail based survey of 1249 otologic surgeons on their practice regarding facial nerve monitoring during ear surgery. The response rate was very low (6.6%). The majority of responders (92%) stated that they did not...

Vestibular screening in occupational medicine

Occupational vestibular disorders carry a high medico legal and economic burden. The occupational medicine physician must rely on rapid, non-invasive, economical and reproducible screening tests. This article compares the simplified caloric test of Veits (CTV) with the skull vibration-induced nystagmus...

Hearing protectors and speech perception

This study tested 31 subjects using hearing protectors by maintaining a constant intensity level for the speech signal while varying background noise levels. The goal was to use this test to detect speech perceptual abilities under different hearing protectors –...

Effect of swallowing exercises following free flap for oral cancer reconstruction

This paper from Beijing looked at 68 patients, 34 in a control group and 34 in an intervention group. Oral exercise training was performed by a specialist swallowing nurse in the intervention group. They found that personalised oral exercises had...

Not to be underestimated

Equipment may differ, formulas and hearing aids alter, but I am in agreement with what this article points out: the test box can be considered a vastly under-used and under-appreciated piece of equipment. It can provide an alternative verification for...

Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss and vertigo

This prospective longitudinal study evaluated vestibular function inpatients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL) using caloric and video head impulse tests. All patients were admitted for treatment of their ISSHL and divided into two cohorts depending on presence or...

Decreased paediatric myringotomy and insertion of ventilation tube rates during Covid 2019 pandemic

This study involves a province in Canada and claims that the need for paediatric myringotomy and insertion of grommets reduced to a third with public health measures aimed at reducing transmission of respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, in the Covid-19 pandemic....

The effect on taste buds due to severing of the chorda tympani nerve

The long-term histological effect on taste buds following cutting of the chorda tympani in humans is not clear. Confocal laser scanning allows in-vivo examination of the same group of taste buds and is aiding our understanding of why patients recover...

Sulcus vocalis in patients attending voice clinics: A retrospective study

Sulcus vocalis was first described by Giacomini. This includes a variety of anatomic indentations of the vocal fold, ranging from shallow longitudinal furrows to deep vocal cord pits. This retrospective study was conducted at King Saud University between 2006 and...

Association of sinonasal symptoms with ear disease

The study explores the possible association of sinonasal symptoms with ear disease. The subjects were patients with ear problems which were categorised as group A – patients with external ear problems (15%), group B1 – patients with middle ear mucosal...

Alcohol and the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR)

I was drawn to this paper initially for slightly unscientific reasons but in fact it proved a worthwhile read. It describes the effect of alcohol consumption on the VOR of eight healthy subjects as measured using video head impulse testing...