Robotic surgery for squamous cell cancer: the new frontiers

Although the da Vinci platform was FDA approved for early-stage oropharyngeal cancers, the indications have expanded. In this article, John Hardman explains how surgeons, with greater understanding of the strengths and limitations of robotic surgery, have systematically set out to...

Head and neck robotic surgery – considerations for the surgical trainee

In 2021, training in head and neck cancer surgery would be incomplete without some robotic resections under the belt. Henry Zhang explains how he did it and outlines the options available. With a wide range of applications in both benign...

The ENT operating theatre viewed down the retrospectoscope

We learn much of our future by looking at our past; Douglas MacMillan provides us with a fascinating glimpse into his years as a junior doctor. The operating theatre was a somewhat alien environment in the late 1960s: theatre sisters...

Chocolates for laryngectomees

When The Chocolate Line in Bruges, Belgium, was approached by the charity, Shout at Cancer, there was always going to be something very special and innovative in the pipeline! Shout at Cancer’s Thomas Moors has been chatting with Julius Persoone,...

Machine learning and the future of otolaryngology

If you are over 30 years of age, you have witnessed a technology revolution that has grossly affected how we live: computers have come from being an oddity to an everyday feature in our households and places of work; the...

Head and neck cancer multidisciplinary team

Why do we have MDTs? Do they make a difference to outcomes? Jon Bernstein explores the whys and wherefores of the head and neck cancer MDT, and wonders where things might go from here… Head and neck (upper aerodigestive tract)...

By the people, for the people: a multidisciplinary facial nerve clinic with a difference

Facial nerve palsy is regularly seen in ENT clinics. Underlying diagnoses are excluded, and the patient is often then discharged to ‘see how it goes’, with or without an ophthalmology referral. Here, Catherine Meller describes how she and her team...

Anaesthesia for free-flap surgery

Adel Hutchinson is one of those calm and controlled anaesthetists for whom nothing seems too difficult. In this article, she describes the key perioperative factors for one of the highest complexity operations in ENT; free-flap surgery. It makes good reading...

Sugammadex

Scott Russell is an anaesthetist with an almost unrivalled experience of complex head and neck surgery, and has seen all manner of new ideas come and go. However, in this article he describes a new pharmaceutical agent that is already...

The future of head and neck cancer surgery

Neil Sharma paints an exciting picture of the future of head and neck surgery with nanobots and robot augmented humans – science fiction or reality? Time will tell. ‘May you live in interesting times’ reads the old Chinese curse. The...

BACO International 2018: Key Speakers

Prof Aldo C Stamm, MD, MSc, PhD Anatomy of the paranasal sinuses and skull base, and breaking the paradigms in severe spontaneous epistaxis It is a true honour to participate as an invited faculty member at the upcoming BACO International...

Thyroid cancer – the last decade

Professor Ashok Shaha describes the evolution in the treatment of thyroid cancer that he has witnessed over the last decade and the invaluable progress made by himself and others, from their contributions to staging systems and guidelines. Nuances and paradigm...