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Diagnosing complications of acute mastoiditis in emergency situations

In many cases, acute mastoiditis is manageable with intravenous antibiotics and hospitalised care. However, the decision whether to intervene surgically remains crucial and reliance is based on radiological findings – CT scans for bony changes and MRI for possible intra-cerebral...

Endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery versus dopamine agonist therapy for microprolactinomas

This study addresses the importance of the location of microprolactinomas in determining prognosis after surgery. Long-term dopamine agonist treatment is the current standard of treatment for microprolactinomas. However, patients often seek surgical removal. The authors of this study retrospectively analysed...

Is bone scanning still of value?

This is an article from Australia of 109 patients, 83 of which had CT, 72 MRI and the presence of bone invasion on imaging was compared with the histopathology. Bone invasion was present in 44 of 109 resection specimens. Bone...

Obstructive sleep apnoea: Does maxillomandibular advancement work?

This is a paper from the Netherlands reviewing 62 patients who underwent maxillomandibular advancement for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnoea. The authors observed a 71% success rate with mean apnoea hypopnea index (AHI) reduction of 69%. There was no...

FESS for recurrent acute rhinosinusitis: at last, some data

As noted in both the EPOS 2012 and in the (more recent) ICARS 2016, there is a paucity of evidence on the effectiveness of surgery for recurrent acute rhinosinusitis (RARS). The authors used a control group of patients with CRSsNP,...

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...

Invasive differentiated thyroid cancer

The majority of patients presenting with differentiated thyroid cancer have early small disease with excellent long-term outcomes. However, aerodigestive tract invasion is reported in around 10% of case series and is a poor prognostic factor. This article has been authored...

Two for the price of one - multiple parotid neoplasms

With advancing years come many benefits, but one drawback is the acquisition of parotid (or thyroid) neoplasms. Conventional teaching is that most are benign and slowly enlarge, and not infrequently are found bilaterally as in Warthin’s. Pleomorphic adenomas are also...