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Temporal bone trauma

Introduction Temporal bone injuries represent one of the more complex management problems presenting to the otolaryngologist. This is largely due to difficulties in assessment and the frequent delays in referral, often as a result of other injuries demanding more immediate...

The changing spectrum of cancer of the oropharynx: dilemmas and future directions

The association of HPV in oropharyngeal cancer has identified a ‘new disease’, with its unique biologic behaviour, and challenges for clinicians in selecting therapeutic combinations offering maximum efficacy and minimum morbidity or long-term sequela currently under study in clinical trials....

Progress of head and neck surgery in China over the last 20 years

Although China was late to establish head and neck surgery in comparison to other areas of oncological surgery, with the persistent hard work of head and neck surgeons nationally, it has progressed significantly during the last two decades. Yueying Ma...

Allergy – what’s in a name?

Allergy is defined as an “abnormal immune reaction to an ordinarily harmless substance” [1], however the meaning of the word has taken many forms since its introduction in 1906 by Austrian Paediatrician and Immunologist, Clemens von Pirquet [2]. Combining his...

Not just the scissors: the story of Myron Metzenbaum

Myron Metzenbaum was born in Cleveland, Ohio (USA) in 1876, the fourth of nine children. As a young man, he worked in the family’s linen store, where his father was well known to be very kind to the less fortunate...

The fatal illness of Frederick the Noble

Sir Morell Mackenzie is acknowledged as the ‘Father of British Otolaryngology’. He was the leading throat specialist of his time and one of the founders of the Journal of Laryngology and Otology in 1887. He studied in Paris, Vienna and...

A ‘rye’ tail – the fatal illness of Lord Boringdon, a Regency tragedy

The anonymous privately-printed book, Some Account of Lord Boringdon’s Accident, describes in deferential terms a case of aspiration of a foreign body and its sequelae. Today aspirated foreign bodies are serious but curable injuries; before the invention of the bronchoscope...

Erasmus Darwin and the larynx – but why is it where it is and when?

Charles Darwin’s grandfather was not only on to where we all came from by the end of the 18th century, but dared to declare it in verse whilst resident in Lichfield Cathedral Close. This needed exceptional temerity, since not only...