Journal Reviews
Migraine medication and benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)
BPPV is a very common form of dizziness (lifetime prevalence 2.4%) and has been noted to have an association with migraine. The cause of otoconia displacement in BPPV is often unclear. A vascular mechanism theory has been postulated in varying...
Bell’s palsy outcomes
Bell’s palsy is a common, idiopathic, unilateral facial paresis or paralysis of sudden onset. This retrospective study reviewed the records of 193 patients diagnosed with Bell’s palsy. The patient’s clinical data, House-Brackman (h-B) grade, and data from five electrophysiological tests...
Starry eyed?
Attentive listening and active listening skills suggest that eye movement is an important factor in subject engagement. Indeed, when asked, AI suggests gaze is held for 70% of the time when listening. Although the route of this percentage is unclear,...
Cochlear implant, Ménière’s no more
Implanting Ménière’s disease (MD) patients with cochlear implant (CI) may improve their speech recognition, tinnitus and quality of life with comparable hearing benefits to those seen in controls without MD, even if labyrinthectomy has also been performed. Authors investigated the...
Paroxysmal downbeating nystagmus and proton pump inhibitors
This case report highlights the effect of long-term use of proton pump inhibitors on the vestibular system. The authors reported a case of a 70-year-old woman who was admitted with delirium, ataxia, slurred speech and slowness of thought. She had...
Vestibular implantation: are we there yet?
The objectives of this review article were to ascertain, through a systematic literature review, device design, surgical approaches, objective and subjective outcomes as well as limitations of vestibular implantation (VI). Following an extensive systematic search using PRISMA guidelines, 21 studies...
Elevated intracranial pressure versus migraines versus sinusitis?
This narrative review discusses the challenges faced by an otolaryngologist to differentiate elevated intracranial pressure (eICP), migraines and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Facial pain, pressure, aural fullness, muffled hearing and tinnitus are often common symptoms described by patients with all three...
Are you still talking about Covid?
Bell’s palsy (idiopathic facial nerve palsy) has an annual incidence of 15 to 30 cases per 100,000 people. This study aims to assess the effect of Covid and Covid vaccination on this incidence using a large database. Authors used TriNetX,...
Epley manoeuvre angles
Posterior canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (PC-BPPV) is a common vestibular cause of dizziness regularly encountered in the outpatient clinic. The condition is often diagnosed with a positive Dix-Hallpike manoeuvre (DHM) – turning the patient’s head 45 degrees to the...
The cocktail party conundrum
I feel, with slight sadness and disappointment, that a good cocktail party, dresses, punch bowls and all is not currently in its heyday and, therefore, opportunity of attending is slim. However, from what I remember, they tend to be a...
Expectations and practice
Reading this paper is reassuring. It does not appear to be groundbreaking in its results but research can be as useful, if not more so, when it consolidates knowledge and helps unify the research base. This paper focuses on those...
Cochlear implant – should we follow the curve?
Slimmer electrodes were developed by cochlear implant companies under the premise of hearing preservation (HP). Electrode types included stylet-curved electrodes sheath-curved electrodes, and straight-flexible electrodes. Previous reviews did not compare sheath and straight electrodes. A systematic review and meta-analysis were...
