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Predicting which oropharyngeal SCC HPV-positive patients should avoid de-escalated treatment

This study is timely for many reasons and raises very important questions in the management of the current rise in HPV-positive patients with oropharyngeal cancer (OPC). The uniqueness of this group within head and neck cancer in terms of favourable...

New MRI technique assesses treatment response in skull base osteomyelitis

This paper describes another useful imaging technique to monitor Necrotising Otitis Externa (NOE). Echoplanar diffusion weighted magnetic resonance (DW MR) shows high signal on the ‘ADC map’ with active disease and this reduces in signal intensity as symptoms improve. This...

Hyperbaric oxygen for sudden onset sensorineural hearing loss

Idiopathic sudden onset sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is a relatively common presentation to the ENT emergency department, and can have profound effects on patients’ lives. This retrospective study looked at 15 patients who were treated with hyperbaric oxygen after failure...

Postoperative radiation in early stage oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer (OPSCC)

There is significant variation in treatment strategies for OPSCC between units. This is largely due to unanswered questions which continue to exist beyond the published literature. We know that human papilloma virus status has a significant influence on prognosis but...

Chemo-radiation in elderly patients with head and neck cancers

Chemo-radiotherapy is the standard of care for organ preservation in stage three and four oropharyngeal cancer, prospective data on patients over 65 has not been available as they are usually excluded from randomised trials. This paper reviews the experience of...

Four (more) ways to reduce turbinates

Setting aside the issue of when/if to reduce inferior turbinates, the issue of how to reduce turbinates is a never-ending story. This edition of rhinology carries two articles looking at this subject, both prospective randomised trials comparing two different methods...

Intratympanic steroids - to give or not to give?

The treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) is controversial and different modes of steroids have been tried without any universal consensus. Various authors have reported combined oral and intratympanic steroid therapy in SSNHL, with consistent results in several...

Are quinsies worth draining?

Recent data is providing accumulating evidence that treatment failure in the management of peritonsillar abscesses (PTAs, aka ‘quinsies’) is similar when these are managed with medical treatment (MT) alone versus MT plus surgical drainage (M+ST). However, in the absence of...