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Olfaction in CRS

Conventional teaching tells us that hyposmia in chronic rhinosinusitis is due to mechanical obstruction of the olfactory cleft. But it might be that the story is slightly more complicated than that. Olfactory dysfunction is a common feature of chronic rhinosinusitis...

Sniffing out the evidence – COVID-19 and loss of sense of smell and taste

Louis Pasteur once observed: “In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.” Professor Hopkins was certainly prepared when a few anecdotes of smell problems started to accumulate early in the pandemic’s course. Post-viral olfactory loss is nothing...

The MACRO Trial: defining best management of chronic rhinosinusitis

A major UK trial in The Lancet finds ESS provides greater symptom relief than long-term macrolides for adults with CRS, supporting earlier surgery and fewer antibiotics. The MACRO Programme was established in 2016 when the UK National Institute of Health...

The lessons in setting up a community ENT service in the NHS

Sudeb Mandal, a GP with special interest in ENT, talks about the novel approach taken in the community to deliver ENT services in Kent in the UK. The Kent Community ENT service was born with the vision to bring together...

Current management of unilateral sporadic vestibular schwannoma

Vestibular schwannoma is the commonest tumour of the cerebellopontine angle (80%) and accounts for around 8% of all intracranial tumours. The commonest primary presenting symptoms are audio vestibular. Hearing health professionals are often the first contact for patients with potential symptoms of vestibular schwannoma, with the majority then being seen and diagnosed by otorhinolaryngologists.

Surgeons and swearing

We will all know colleagues who have raised the act of swearing to an art form; just as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It could cut a workmate in half with a well-placed swear word, surgeons can be equally...