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Gastro-oesophageal reflux and cricopharyngeal dysfunction – how do they link?

It has been hypothesised that cricopharyngeal muscle hypertrophy develops as a response to chronic gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. The cricopharyngeus muscle is an important component and contributor to the upper oesophageal sphincter that creates a barrier between the pharynx and oesophagus....

Laryngeal cleft in a 66-year-old man!

This is a fascinating case report of a 66-year-old man who presented with a carcinoma of the piriform sinus. During chemoradiotherapy, he developed dyspnoea, dysphagia and aspiration pneumonia. His chemoradiotherapy was stopped and he underwent a pharygnolaryngectomy. When the surgical...

Red flag head and neck cancer symptoms

This was a prospective study of 1589 patients that were enrolled in the Scottish Audit of Head and Neck Cancer between 1999 and 2001. It recorded their presenting symptoms and assessed their long-term survival with respect to symptoms and subsites...

Swallow assessment: is clinical judgement or objective measurement more reliable?

Swallowing difficulties are life threatening and are the most common referral reason to speech and language therapists working with the adult population. Video fluoroscopic examination is a common instrumental tool used to assist in the assessment of the risk of...

Planning for end of life care: is there a role for the speech and language therapist?

This article presents a scoping review of the research literature on the role of speech and language therapists in palliative care settings. The researchers conducted a search using several electronic databases focusing on palliative, terminal and end of life (EOL)...

Transnasal oesophagoscopy: prospective cohort review

This paper looked at 257 patients undergoing the procedure in a tertiary otolaryngology department. In light of the morbidity of upper GI endoscopy associated with the sedation required, the safety profile of transnasal oesophagoscopy is a clear advantage. This cohort...

Epithelial risk factors

This review paper from Barcelona retrospectively assesses patients diagnosed with oral epithelial dysplasia between 1995-2014 and followed up until 2017. In total, 144 cases were noted, of which 42% progressed to an oral cancer by the time of review in...

Botulinum toxin injection for bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis

All traditional surgical treatments for bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) paralysis are essentially a balance between maximising airway patency and ensuring adequate phonation / airway protection. This paper highlights the potential role of botulinum toxin (Botox) injection into the cricothyroid...

Clinical pathological features associated with malignant change in oral leukoplakias

This is a retrospective study from Sweden where 234 patients, diagnosed between 2003 and 2013 with a median nine-year follow-up, were reviewed. Of these 234 patients, 11.5% developed oral squamous cell carcinoma. Non-homogenous leukoplakia showed a 15-times higher transformation rate...

Ballenger’s Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery, 18th Edition

One hundred and eight years after its first edition, the two-volume eighteenth edition of Ballenger’s Otorhinolaryngology is published in1300 pages set out in six sections, 114 chapters ably edited by Ashley Wackym and James Snow. Volume one very comprehensively covers...

Predicting the nature of swallowing deficits caused by surgical resection of the tongue?

Patients treated surgically for cancer of the tongue are expected to have difficulty in eating, drinking and swallowing. The authors of this paper report on a cohort of 106 patients in their practice who had surgical resection as primary treatment....