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Strengthen your communication: better conversations can reduce the risk of frailty

Our population is ageing and, with this, the incidence of frailty is increasing. Frailty is defined as increased vulnerability to stressors resulting in adverse outcomes. Stressors can include communication and swallowing difficulties, yet these are poorly recognised. Management of communication...

Demonstrating unobservable effects of therapy through PROMS: a review

Ultimately, healthcare should meet the needs of the people it is designed for. One way of measuring this is using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS). These tools capture the patient’s perspective and have been described as demonstrating the unobservable effects of...

Drooling: what is it like to be unable to manage your own saliva?

Drooling in Parkinson’s is associated with less frequent and inefficient swallowing, resulting in a build-up of saliva in the mouth that then moves beyond the lips. It often causes discomfort as the skin becomes sore, and results in embarrassment. The...

BLA Annual Conference 2025

The British Laryngological Association Annual Conference is a one-day event at the Royal Society of Medicine, London. It brings together clinicians, researchers and allied health professionals with a shared interest in voice, airway and swallowing disorders.

Accurately diagnosing reflux to direct personalised treatment

Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) frequently causes severe extra-gastrointestinal symptoms – such as a persistent cough, vocal problems, asthma or difficulty swallowing – that can be easily confused with a common cold and allergies.

BLA announces membership election results

The British Laryngological Association (BLA) has announced the results of its bi-annual election.

Surgical voice restoration after laryngopharyngectomy

Voice restoration is one of the key rehabilitative steps after laryngectomy or total laryngopharyngectomy (TLP). Patients who undergo TLP require reconstruction – increasingly commonly with microvascular free flaps. Despite their advantages in terms of fistula rates and swallowing outcomes, these...

Elevated prevalence of late-onset dysphagia among head and neck cancer survivors and identifying risk factors

Dysphagia is one of the most common problems affecting head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors. There are few studies investigating late-onset dysphagia post-treatment. The authors set out to investigate the prevalence of dysphagia-related diagnoses and procedures five years’ post-treatment, changes...

All videoswallows are not performed equally…

Videofluoroscopy is one of the main instrumental tools used to assess swallowing biomechanics and physiology. In the UK, it is mainly within the remit of speech and language therapists (SLT) to perform videoswallows but there is considerable variability in both...

Is it necessary to put ventilation tubes at the time of surgery in children with cleft palate?

It is commonly understood that existence of a palatal cleft is associated with abnormal action of tensor veli palatini muscle. Frequent middle ear effusions therefore occur because this muscle obstructs rather than opens the Eustachian tube on yawning and swallowing,...

Laryngeal transplantation: is it a thing?

Few organs could be said to be more complex than the larynx when it comes to transplantation. Martin Birchall looks at past challenges, current issues and future prospects. I am not clear exactly why I chose to spend a life...

ENT in this issue...Historical Figures in ENT and Audiology

GUEST SECTION EDITORS Katherine Conroy, ST7 at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Northwestern Deanery, Department of ENT, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK. E: katherine.conroy@cantab.net Prof Ray Clarke, BA, BSc, DCH FRCS, FRCS(ORL), Consultant Paediatric ENT Surgeon, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, UK;...