Journal Reviews
REVISIONS acronym for preoperative imaging review in revision endoscopic sinus surgery
The authors have developed an acronym to aid evaluation of preoperative sinus CT imaging in revision endoscopic sinus surgery (RESS). To determine which pertinent aspects of anatomy to include, a systemic review of studies that investigated anatomic contributions to persistent...
Does endoscopic sinus surgery for chronic rhinosinusitis improve COPD?
Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) can be associated with asthma, with a reported frequency of asthma in patients with CRS of up to 44%. COPD is another lung condition that can be associated with CRS. This longitudinal study reviewed the nasal and...
Age is not an issue in sinus surgery
We have an increasingly aged population, and hence older and older patients are presenting with sinonasal issues and the potential need for endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). The authors sought to identify if older patients (age >70) have more complications post...
When to operate on a patient without chronic disease?
As ENT surgeons, we spend a lot of time managing chronic rhinosinusitis, so a review and update on the management of the acute disease is always helpful. The standard medical treatment of antibiotics, nasal steroids and nasal decongestants are reported...
How safe is sinonasal surgery for the operating surgeon in times of COVID-19?
I’m sure we have all wondered how safe we are in the operating theatre from virus circulating in the room and therefore the risk of subsequent COVID-19 infection. The authors addressed this by measuring the airborne particle concentrations in the...
Simple preoperative tests predicting outcomes for ESS patients?
We are all familiar with patients suffering extensive nasal polyps who relapse all to soon after careful and thorough endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). This paper looks to answer whether we can predict which patients will do well, and which less...
A 3D-printed endoscopic sinus surgery simulator – validity testing
The challenge of gaining sufficient experiential learning to successfully navigate the learning curve toward competence has long been a challenge in surgical education. The COVID-19 pandemic, and its impact on elective capacity, has presented a further challenge to the acquisition...
Earlier intervention to correct anosmia?
This is an interesting study aimed to determine the timing for successful surgical intervention in improving the sense of smell in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). A total of 86 CRSwNP patients with loss of smell and...
Eustachian tube dysfunction usually improves following endoscopic sinus surgery
This study investigated effects of endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) on eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) and factors associated with improvement. This was a retrospective study which included 302 patients over 17 years old who underwent ESS between 1 December 2016 and...
Location, location, location: How to get the steroid where you need it, in chronic rhinosinusitis
What almost all current guidelines on chronic rhinosinusitis have in common is the importance of intranasal steroid (INCS) use. However, it is increasingly understood that the efficacy of INCS depends on their efficient delivery to the point of need, i.e....
How to manage the concha bullosa in FESS
It is an interesting concept to assess how much impact the presence of a large concha bullosa (CB) has on both severity of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and also postoperative outcomes after FESS. The authors accept that the paper has limitations...
A classification of a new cell - the retrosphenoid cell
This is a concise paper which describes a previously undefined type of cell within the sphenoethmoidal complex. It identifies the retrosphenoid cell, differentiated from an Onodi cell by being entirely within the posterior wall of the sphenoid sinus, lying between...
