Journal Reviews
Management of post-tonsillectomy bleeding with nebulised TXA
In the last 20 years, rates of adult tonsillectomy have fallen in the order of 50%. The flipside to this, is that the number of admissions of patients with acute tonsilitis is more than double the reduction in tonsillectomy rates....
Not to be mis-underestimated
It is a very rare occurrence to find a paper looking at NF2 and the auditory system. There seems to only be a couple on NF2 prevalence in the population, so this is unsurprising. As far as I can recall...
Tinnitus without hearing loss – inflammation?
Inflammation can have a profound impact on multiple systems. Certainly in recent years, autoimmune conditions are on the rise and the impact on audiovestibular symptoms have been documented. Given the rates in the population, the impact of inflammation on the...
Paediatric conductive hearing loss management
This review article discusses the current guidelines for the management of paediatric otitis media, tympanostomy tube placement indications, management of risk factors for chronic otitis media, intraoperative and postoperative management guidelines and the management of complications. The important takeaways include...
Vestibular function preservation after minimally invasive paediatric cochlear implantation
This retrospective study analysed results in 24 paediatric patients with low-frequency residual hearing before and after minimally invasive cochlear implantation. The authors define minimally invasive cochlear implantation as a round window insertion of flexible Nucleus CI422, Nucleus CI522, MedEl Flex...
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...
