Journal Reviews
Newborn sensorineural hearing loss – what is the incidence?
In the last two decades, the introduction of newborn screening for hearing loss has dramatically lowered the average age of newborn hearing loss diagnosis to around two to three months of age. The benefits of early diagnosis are manifold, enabling...
Corticosteroid prescribing in ENT - are we at risk of being sued?
Of medications leading to malpractice claims, corticosteroids comprise the third most common. They are used widely and have a significant side-effect profile: hypertension, lipodystrophy, diabetes, avascular necrosis of the femoral head, peptic ulceration and psychiatric reactions to name but a...
Clinical Practice Guideline on Tympanostomy Tube in Children Update (AAO-HNS)
The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation’s ‘Clinical Practice Guideline: Tympanostomy Tubes in Children (Update)’ has been recently published - an update of the original 2013 guideline. This article forms an executive summary to accompany the full guideline....
Septoplasty under local and general anaesthetic
This Turkish prospective, non-randomised study compared the quality of life outcomes in 50 patients who underwent local anaesthetic (LA) septoplasty, and 50 patients who underwent general anaesthetic (GA) septoplasty over a six-month period. Quality of life outcomes were measured using...
Implications of tonsillectomy in very young children
This is a comprehensive study comprising 157 children who underwent tonsillectomy below the age of two years, mainly for sleep-disordered breathing (86.6%) and recurrent tonsillitis (7%). With relatively recent understanding of OSAS, the indications for tonsillectomy in children under two...
The basis of auditory processing disorder: what can we learn from corticals?
Auditory processing disorder (APD) is a poorly understood, heterogenous and surprisingly common condition. It manifests as a perceptual difficulty in centrally processing auditory information. Diagnosis is usually based on a variety of behavioural tests involving verbal and non-verbal assessments. In...
Further understanding of GJB2 hearing loss
For many years, hearing loss has been an area which has attracted the interest of clinical and academic geneticists. Genetic testing for severe-profound hearing loss is now commonplace in many healthcare systems. Understanding the genetics of hearing loss has improved...
Which scan for children with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss? Keeping the debate going…
There have been years of debate about the appropriate imaging strategy for children with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. For those children undergoing cochlear implant surgery, CT may provide some assistance to surgical planning, although this is not necessary in children...
The incidence of coagulopathies in children presenting with post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage
Tonsillectomy is often the first haemostatic challenge for a child. Postoperative haemorrhage may therefore represent the first presentation of a child’s underlying bleeding disorder. This study aimed to quantify the rate of occult coagulopathy in patients who had experienced a...
Can we centralise cochlear implant surgery and keep most appointments close to home?
The NHS Five Year Forward View promoted seeing patients closer to home in order to provide better care, cut down on missed appointments and reduce costs. This encouraged the development of ‘hub and spoke’ models of care, but this model...
Canal wall up mastoid defects - can they be usefully reconstructed with hydroxyapatite cranioplastic cement?
Standard canal wall up (CWU) mastoid surgery leaves a mastoid defect of varying size, commonly covered by soft tissue. Rarely, this bony defect can cause discomfort, cosmetic issues or other problems. To mitigate these, the defect can be filled either...
Identifying congenital CMV: the screening debate
Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) is a significant global public health burden and is the biggest non-genetic cause of childhood hearing loss, as well as being an important cause of neurodevelopmental delay. Despite a study concluding that there was not enough evidence...
