You searched for "voice"
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;...
Lateral wall augmentation for patulous eustachian tube
The problem more commonly attributed to the eustachian tube is lack of its patency rather than it being unduly patulous. This lesser recognised condition is due to loss of peritubal fat volume resulting in concavity of the lateral wall and...
Are upper respiratory symptoms and macroscopic changes in children always due to gastro-oesphageal reflux?
In children, symptoms such as chronic cough, wheezing, stridor, voice changes, persistent asthma and dental erosion are often presumed to be due to gastro-oesophageal reflux and empirical treatment with PPIs is offered. Usual investigations, such as a barium meal, gastroscopy...
Tricky post-laryngectomy swallows
Despite improvements in chemoradiation therapy and the adoption of organ preservation for some head and neck cancers, total laryngectomy remains the treatment often providing best survival chances for advanced laryngeal cancer. This article reviews the causes of dysphagia post-laryngectomy and...
Botulinum toxin in ENT
This comprehensive review neatly summarises non-cosmetic uses of botulinum toxin within otorhinolaryngology, it is perhaps easy to forget the medical use of botulinum toxin has now been approved for the last thirty years. Its overall safety profile places it as...
Unilateral vocal cord mobility impairment and laryngopulmonary physiology
The concept of iatrogenic recurrent laryngeal nerve injury following thyroid surgery is often considered with respect to voice change but its potential impact on airway physiology has thus far not been evaluated. A cross-sectional observational study reviewed 21 patients with...
Thyroid cancer: to dissect the neck or not?
This is a good review of the much-debated management of the neck in thyroid cancer. It discusses oncological goals that must be achieved whilst maintaining voice, swallowing and parathyroid function. A clear description is made of the common nodal basins...
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...
Successful laser treatment of a laryngeal cause of dizziness
Dizziness is often considered to be a condition that is best managed by physicians or otologists. This case report describes an unusual cause of presyncope successfully treated by a laryngologist. The patient in question was a 45-year-old member of the...
Salivary pepsin – a simple test for LPR?
A diagnosis of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) can be made on the basis of characteristic symptoms and nasendoscopy findings. Objective tests exist for this condition; for example, 24-hour dual-channel pH-metry which is considered to be the gold standard. Such tests are,...
Patient positioning for transnasal flexible laryngoscopy
The position of a patient’s head during flexible nasendoscopy to visualise the larynx does not usually require much consideration – adequate views are almost always obtained with a patient sitting in a neutral position. Occasionally however, there will be patients...
