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The death of Attila the Hun, a 70s film and Japanese cartoons

The 6th century Gothic monk, Jordanes, tells us that Attila the Hun, the notorious and allegedly merciless barbarian (who was a prime mover in the fall of the Roman Empire), died of a nosebleed on his wedding night in 453...

Guillotines from Joseph‑Ignace Guillotin to Greenfield Sluder

Joseph‑Ignace Guillotin. The politician and physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) was so disgusted by brutal head and shoulder injuries sustained in ‘failed attempts’ by drunken axe-wielding executioners during the French Revolution that he and surgeon Antoine Louis (1723-1792) advocated not only...

Down with the nose, down with it flat

In Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, Timon urges prostitutes to spread syphilis throughout Athens. He implores the whores, Phrynia and Timandra, to: Consumptions* sow In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,And mar men’s spurring*. Crack the lawyer’s voice**, That...

The artificial eardrum: how an eggshell membrane fed a German ENT family

In the pre-antibiotic era, purulent otitis media often resulted in a permanent eardrum perforation with hearing loss. In addition to pig or fish bladders, eggshell membranes and cigarette paper were used as eardrum prostheses. I have vivid personal boyhood memories...

From battlefield to homefront: how the First World War shifted perceptions of deafness

The First World War marked a pivotal moment in the understanding and treatment of hearing loss and deafness. Prior to the war, deafness had been largely attributed to congenital causes. This view was influenced by a negative eugenic Darwinist ideology...

The Indian method: Sushruta’s influence on modern nasal reconstruction

Ancient Indian medicine, as documented in the Sushruta Samhita, contains one of the earliest known references to nasal reconstruction, including surgical techniques still resembling modern practices. (The Sanskrit word ‘Samhita’ is used to define a collection of written work, similar...

Developing an Innovation for ENT – from Idea to Market: how ‘e-i’ did it

Background endoscope-i (e-i) Ltd was incorporated into Companies House on December 3rd, 2012 following eight months of developing our first project, a simple iPhone adapter for endoscopes. Of the three founding shareholders, two are ENT surgeons and one a lecturer...

Imaging and management of head and neck vascular anomalies

Vascular anomalies are a diffuse spectrum of abnormalities which often involve the head, neck and oral cavity. They are frequently misnamed, often being generically labelled as haemangiomas. This lack of basic understanding can cause confusion leading to a cascade of...

Migration and training: a British-Nigerian surgeon’s perspective

Less than 4% of doctors on the UK’s medical register describe their ethnicity as African or part African, yet there are myriad driving forces behind the migration of medical trainees from Africa to the UK and other developed countries. Ekpemi...