TLM for glottic carcinoma has historically been performed with a carbon dioxide (CO2) laser. A much smaller literature base has examined the use of potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) laser in this context. This retrospective chart review aims to fill that...
There is significant variation in treatment strategies for OPSCC between units. This is largely due to unanswered questions which continue to exist beyond the published literature. We know that human papilloma virus status has a significant influence on prognosis but...
The standard existing da Vinci surgical robot (the Si model) has been much maligned for not being optimally designed for transoral access and endoscopic manoeuvrability in head and neck surgery. This preclinical work from Holsinger and his team looks at...
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...
Kate Prior is an anaesthetist who has, quite literally, been there, done that. In this article she manages to use words on a page to bring to life some of the conditions and challenges she faced as a member of...
As a Macmillan Head and Neck Specialist Nurse, I was very pleased to be asked to review this book, The Laryngectomee Guide, by Itzhak Brook, MD. It is fair to say that for most laryngectomy patients, life does go on...
In this article, the authors describe a quick and effective technique to assist with the maximal deflation of a tracheostomy tube cuff prior to insertion, thus making the process easier with less chance of damage to the cuff and a...
Patients frequently present to the ENT department with breathing difficulties. The entity of ‘vocal cord dysfunction’ (also known as paradoxical vocal cord movement, inducible laryngeal obstruction, and many other names) is increasingly well recognised. Ravi Thevasagayam gives us an overview....
Adolf Kussmaul drew inspiration from an unlikely source to further the development of endoscopy… The early pioneers of airway endoscopy and oesophagoscopy were bedevilled by two major and seemingly insurmountable problems. One was the paucity of light sources, with reliance...
Background Among the many hundreds of children presenting to the otolaryngology clinic are a few whose symptoms are due to an underlying genetic condition. In most cases the underlying syndrome is obvious and has already been diagnosed, such as the...
Most head and neck surgeons and ENT-specialists may know that the first laryngectomy for cancer was performed by Billroth on 31 December 1873. Billroth´s assistant, Vincenz Czerny, had outlined the operation in experimental surgery on dogs in 1870. Three years...
In this article, the authors describe a simple and effective technique for extracting an aspirated voice prosthesis from within the tracheobronchial tree in the awake laryngectomised patient using the Ambu® aScopeTM 4 Broncho endoscope. Surgical voice restoration remains the dominant...