You searched for "protective"
Smoking causes cancer – so what’s new?
You may well ask what is the novel value of a paper looking at smoking habits in patients with confirmed head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), but this paper highlights some pertinent points for clinical practice in the current...
Hear me out – tiny steroid implants for fighting meningitis-induced deafness
Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common neurological complication of pneumococcal meningitis. Bacterial infiltration into the inner ear triggers inflammation, leading to cochlear fibrosis and sclerosis – damage that, in over a third of cases, affects both ears. Current Infectious...Running a post-COVID smell clinic
Over the past year, much of our effort as a speciality has been directed towards crisis management and keeping services afloat. Our practice has changed in untold ways, but unprecedented numbers of patients with smell disorders will increasingly require our...Ear wax removal: should anyone and everyone perform it?
Earwax removal is a controversial and much-debated issue in audiology. Risks and public safety call for reforms, sparking discussion on professional standards. Earwax is a natural secretion produced by the ear. It is an amalgamation of desquamous epithelial skin cells,...Screening for hearing loss in primary care
Hearing impairment is one physical disability that is increasing in prevalence in society in general, and in older adults in particular. Approximately 34 to 36 million Americans report suffering from some degree of hearing impairment with the number rising to...
Coblation versus microdebrider submucosal inferior turbinoplasty
This prospective randomised study from Riyadh compares submucosal coblation and submucosal microdebrider inferior turbinate reduction. Seventy patients were recruited who had failed medical treatment and were undergoing isolated inferior turbinate surgery. Outcome measures included the Friedman score and VAS for...Optimising hearing aid solutions for tinnitus sufferers: essential factors to consider
A tailored approach combining counselling, sensory management and perceptual training can improve the effectiveness of hearing aids in managing tinnitus for individual patients. Hearing aids are useful tinnitus therapy tools, according to tinnitus management guidelines. However, there are few published...
Talking it through: voice therapy
The authors begin this article by highlighting two issues in voice therapy: 1. the high rate of relapse and 2. poor attendance at appointments. They attribute this to there not being carryover (or generalisation) work embedded into most voice therapy...
When to treat a fractured mandible?
This is a prospective study from Brisbane of 215 patients with a total of 359 fractures of the mandible. Nine outcome variables were analysed with a further 19 included to adjust for potential confounding. Treatment delay was found not to...
Hypopharyngeal Cancer
The 83rd book from the series by Advances in Oto-Rhino-Laryngology is another addition for the surgeon looking for an update in the management of hypopharyngeal carcinoma. The 180-page publication, divided into 16 chapters with 23 figures and 19 tables, has...
Postoperative pain in septoplasty
This is a prospective Turkish study that looked at factors affecting the postoperative pain response after septoplasty, a common ENT surgical procedure. Sixty patients were included in the study who underwent septoplasty. The authors looked at the influence of demographics...
