You searched for "intervention"
Chronic rhinosinusitis and sleep
This is an interesting article from the Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan. One-hundred-and-thirty-nine patients were enrolled into this five-year study. They all had chronic rhinosinusitis with or without polyposis and underwent sinus surgery. The aim was to investigate a...
What are the non-inflammatory causes of a conductive loss?
This retrospective study looked at patients with an intact tympanic membrane with non-inflammatory causes – i.e. otitis media and cholesteotoma. They document their findings based on exploratory tympanotomy. They operated depending on the findings with either a stapedectomy or a...
Assessing surgical tracheostomy skills
Surgical tracheostomy is an essential operation that trainees must be competent in. There is a lot of research currently looking into assessing trainees’ surgical abilities, particularly into assessments that can be used to demonstrate progress, so this article is very...
Influence of Helicobacter pylori infection in otitis media with effusion
Otitis media with effusion (OME) affects 20% of children and 10% have a recurrent problem. The incidence of Helicobacter pylori infection in children ranges from 15 to 46%. This study investigates how the presence of Helicobacter pylori infection affects treatment...
Smoking and immunotherapy – does it worsen outcome?
This interesting study aimed to address the issue of smoking in patients who had their allergic rhinits treated by sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT). Assessment was with validated quality of life questionnaires. There were 163 patients recruited in Greece who had completed...
Thalidomide in HHT
An interesting paper from a specialist centre in the Netherlands regarding the use of thalidomide in HHT patients. The St Antonius hospital has 1238 patients with HHT and 1% of these use thalidomide. The aim was to assess the benefits,...
Inspiratory peak flow and tracheostomy
The evaluation of the degree of laryngeal obstruction to indicate a tracheostomy has always been a subjective decision. The authors correlated the visual laryngeal obstruction by flexible nasolaryngoscopy and the peak inspiratory flow using a pocket peak inspiratory flowmeter. Twenty-two...
Should all patients with BPPV have an MRI?
This paper describes an interesting series of 500 patients over a 10-year period with posterior canal BPPV, who had been investigated with MRI. The female to male ratio was 1.6:1 with a mean age of 56. There was a right...
Allergen specific subcutaneous immunotherapy helps in prolonged control of allergic rhinitis
One of the commonest allergens involved in perennial allergic rhinitis is house dust mite. A good proportion of these cases prove intractable to treatment with oral and intranasal antihistamines and intranasal steroid sprays. Immunotherapy is considered a useful alternative and...
Identifying early flap failure
The holy grail of flap monitoring is an easy, reliable and predictive method to identify impending compromise. Does this paper provide it? Various methods have been used to improve our ability to monitor the viability of a flap and here...
The mark of the head and neck surgeon
Like Zorro, the head and neck surgeon leaves their mark. No more so than during parotid surgery. Various modifications have been put forward modifying the classic Blair incision. This latest modification camouflages the pre-tragal scar by running it on to...
