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Benefits of combined antiviral and corticosteroid therapy in Bell’s palsy and the role of decompression surgery

Early use of steroids has been established as standard management in Bell’s palsy but simultaneous use of antiviral agents has variable acceptance. This review article analyses statistically based evidence to settle the issue. High quality evidence from a 2009 Cochrane...

Neurosarcoidosis: another aetiologic factor for deafness and labyrinthitis ossificans

Very few studies describe deafness secondary to neurosarcoidosis as the latter is a rare inflammatory disorder of the nervous system usually associated with facial nerve and optic nerve disorders. This interesting case report describes a rare case of cochlear ossification...

Single surgery for repair of tegmen defects and superior semicircular canal dehiscence

This retrospective review of 34 patients undergoing repair of the temporal bone defect via the middle cranial fossa approach provides the author’s management strategy for two problems: superior semicircular canal dehiscence and tegmen defects. The incidence of both these pathologies...

Double layer graft in endoscopic tympanoplasty

This Turkish retrospective study looked at the success rates following endoscopic tympanoplasty using the double layer graft technique. This involves using a tragal cartilage and perichondrium composite graft and a separate perichondrial graft for closure of the perforation. The crescent...

Accuracy of CT scans for cholesteatoma and its complications

Chronic ear disease with cholesteatoma generally requires active surgical management and the requirement for this needs precise assessment. A retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of CT scan findings in terms of predicting cholesteatoma and its associated complications...

Extracapsular dissection versus parotidectomy

This is a literature review of 16 papers using the PRISMA protocol. In comparing the two techniques, not surprisingly, they found that extracapsular dissection was associated with a reduced incidence of facial nerve paralysis and Frey’s syndrome and a shorter...

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...

Postoperative bleeding rates after inferior turbinate reduction using three different techniques

The most serious complication of inferior turbinate reduction surgery is postoperative bleeding, soon after the operation or later on. In this study comprising 751 patients, the authors have compared three common methods. Partial turbinectomy involved resection of the inferior turbinate,...

Vestibular schwannoma surgery and inner ear injuries

Iatrogenic inner ear injury during vestibular schwannoma (VS) surgery ranges between 20% and 30% in the literature. However, there is no up-to-date quantification of such injuries, hence this study. The authors conducted a US-multicentre database search looking for patients who...

How safe is ESS really?

Endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is a very frequently performed operation, both in America and worldwide. This ambitious project looked at the health data of more than 105 million patients across 60 1US HCOS. The cohort of 116,669 patients who underwent...