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Parkinson’s humour: recognising social communication difficulties

Parkinson’s results in a progressive motor disease with symptoms including tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia. However, people with Parkinson’s also experience non-motor symptoms such as cognitive difficulties that can impact social communication, often due to their co-existing speech difficulties, auditory and...

Use it or lose it…

The ageing auditory system: about 15 years ago, you could probably count on one hand the number of research papers on this subject. Now it seems one of the hot topics of discussion and investigation. This is, it seems, quite...

Paediatric hearing following chemotherapy

This study examined the effect of platinum compounds on hearing in 104 children with solid tumours. As would be expected, this group was heterogeneous and included a range of ages, tumour types, chemotherapeutic agents and dosing regimens. Age-appropriate audiometry was...

Airway first in patients with facial trauma

Anyone that has ever been on an ATLS or indeed any other trauma course will be well indoctrinated with the principles of ABC. Securing the airway is of paramount importance; but what to do if the anatomy is altered or...

Steroids pre-FESS

This meta-analysis and systematic review from the Netherlands and the UK aims to answer the question of whether corticosteroids inhaled and / or taken orally are beneficial to patients with chronic rhinosinusitis undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Refreshingly 18 RCTs...

A comparison of cold dissection, coblation and diode laser tonsillectomy

Excellence in tonsillectomy is based on the time taken, blood loss and rapid recovery with minimal pain. In this study, 120 children underwent tonsillectomy by three methods, namely cold dissection, coblation and diode laser dissection in three randomly allocated groups...

Recovery rates in sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is most commonly idiopathic, and is seen relatively frequently in ENT practice. Recovery spans a period of around 1-2 months, and ultimate outcomes are highly variable, from complete recovery to no detectable hearing. Although the...

CSOM in Mwanza, Tanzania

This is a prospective, cross-sectional study involving 301 patients consisting of farmers, students and employed professionals attending an ENT clinic in Mwanza, Tanzania. Of the 301 patients, 13 were HIV positive; 37.9% had some degree of conductive / sensorineural /...

Influence of atmospheric conditions on post tonsillectomy secondary haemorrhage

Haemostasis in epistaxis and a good few other conditions outside the field of otolaryngology seem to be affected by the weather. It is generally thought that dry and hot environment encourages secondary post tonsillectomy haemorrhage. Variations in water vapour pressure,...

Novel balloon device to control cavernous sinus bleeding

In their Letter to the Editor, the authors suggest a draft for a novel balloon catheter device for sinus haemostasis during trans-sphenoidal surgery which is associated with uncontrollable sinus bleeding in 1-8% cases. Their proposed device has a single lumen...

Risk factors for pharyngocutaneous fistula after laryngectomy

Pharyngocutaneous or salivary fistula is a feared complication following laryngectomy, causing significant morbidity, prolonged hospital inpatient stay / cost and mortality. Previous radiotherapy / chemoradiotherapy is a well recognised risk factor and leads many surgeons to recommend onlay pectoralis major...

Shoulder function in patients undergoing neck dissection: its effects on work and leisure activities

Shoulder dysfunction is common after neck dissection and includes shoulder pain, limited abduction and scapular winging. Modifications of the radical neck dissection were designed to limit morbidity, however, even with accessory nerve-sparing neck dissections, shoulder dysfunction can be seen. Shoulder...