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Steroids for vocal cord mucus retention cysts

This is an interesting paper that describes the use of intralesional steroid injections to treat vocal cord mucus retention cysts. The gold standard is microlaryngoscopy and excision of the lesion. In patients who may be unable to undergo surgery, this...

Does use of pectoralis muscle myocutaneous flap (PMMCF) reduce postoperative pharyngocutaneous fistula complication after salvage laryngectomy?

Salvage laryngectomy for recurrent laryngeal carcinoma following failed radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy is associated with high postoperative complication rate. The primary aim of this paper was to assess whether use of muscle myocutaneous flap (PMMCF) as an interposition graft reduces the...

Assessment of temporal bone skills on 3D-printed temporal bones – a useful training curriculum?

The authors contend it is now archaic to follow Halstead’s model of surgical training, namely ‘see one, do one and teach one’. Simulated training is now widely used in many surgical specialities. With every surgical trainee having an individual learning...

Hearing outcomes after mastoid obliteration tympanoplasty

In this study, the authors retrospectively compare hearing outcomes after mastoid obliteration to non-obliterative techniques in cholesteatoma surgery. They have performed canal wall up with mastoid obliteration (bony obliteration tympanoplasty or BOT) since 2013. The procedure has replaced canal wall...

Key Clinical Topics in Otolaryngology

I am a ST6 registrar and, to review this book, I decided to use it as my primary revision guide for the exam and it did not disappoint. This book has all the hallmarks of a great adjunct for the...

Airway intervention for epiglottitis

This Japanese study was a retrospective review of 83 patients admitted with epiglottitis over a 9.5-year period. The authors found that the factors that were significantly more likely to be present in patients who received airway intervention were: odynophagia; drooling;...

Neurosarcoidosis: another aetiologic factor for deafness and labyrinthitis ossificans

Very few studies describe deafness secondary to neurosarcoidosis as the latter is a rare inflammatory disorder of the nervous system usually associated with facial nerve and optic nerve disorders. This interesting case report describes a rare case of cochlear ossification...

European position paper on drug induced sedation endoscopy (DISE)

DISE is a controversial topic but a practice that is largely accepted in the UK. There has been much variation about the technique, and how to interpret the results. For this reason, a collection of European DISE bigwigs aimed for...

The right to choose: stories from the rare dementias

People with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) experience an insidious onset and gradual decline in language on a background of lesser or no cognitive impairment, hence a language-led dementia. There are three different PPA variants that correspond with three different clinical...