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In search of courage; transition 
into Army

In search of courage. Well, that is how it all started. I was fairly advanced in surgical training not to mention age, when I decided to join the Territorial Army (TA). My peers, on hearing this couldn’t decide whether I...

Mastoid surgery for cholesteatoma

Landmark Paper: Toner JG, Smyth GDL. Surgical Treatment of Cholesteatoma: a comparison of three techniques. Am J Otol 1990;11(4):247-9. Canal wall up or canal wall down? Chris Aldren discusses the landmark paper that attempted to provide a definitive answer for...

Prednisolone and/or acyclovir for Bell’s palsy

Landmark Paper: Sullivan FM, Swan IRC, Donnan PT, et al. Early treatment with prednisolone or acyclovir in Bell’s Palsy. N Engl J Med 2007;357(16):1598-607. Facial nerve paralysis as a consequence of Bell’s palsy can result in devastating long-term effects on...

Otology training in low- and middle-income countries: a view from within

It is recognised that hearing loss and ear disease are far more common in less affluent parts of the world, and that those countries are often least able to provide treatment; so how can we prioritise care for these patients?...

Are we making progress on tinnitus?

One of the aspects of tinnitus that drew me into it becoming a major theme of my clinical and research work was how little work had been done when I began to see patients in the mid 1980s. This struck...

Clinical WG1. Establishing a standard for tinnitus: patient assessment and characterisation

Rilana Cima and Haúla Haider introduce an ambitious pan-European collaboration that seeks to establish guidelines for achieving best clinical practice for managing, assessing and treating patients with different tinnitus profiles. Tinnitus heterogeneity is the major reason for inconsistent results in...

High intensity, high impact: tackling waiting lists one HIT at a time

A monthly high intensity theatre list in Sheffield shows how smart planning, teamwork and focus can dramatically reduce long ENT waiting lists. Finally, after many years of training, I’ve started my first consultant post – only to become part of...

TORS for patients with sleep-disordered breathing

Transoral robotic surgery is now a well-accepted technique in malignant tumours of the tongue base. Here the team from St Mary’s and the Royal National Throat Nose & Ear Hospital in London describe its use in carefully selected patients with...

The effects of polypharmacy in the elderly

Another pill to cure the ill? Alec Lapira discusses the warning signs of polypharmacy in the elderly population. Polypharmacy in the elderly Polypharmacy – defined as the use of five or more medications – occurs in 20–37% of older people...