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Balloon dilatation of the eustachian tube: An evidence based review

Eustachian tube dysfunction has long provoked debate among otolaryngologists with wide-spread variation in management. Establishing a safe and effective surgical technique to bring about resolution would be of benefit to those affected, with an estimated incidence of 0.9% in the...

Cost effectiveness and vestibular schwannoma surgery

This is the first cost effectiveness modelling study looking at the three main treatment options for small to medium sized vestibular schwannomas. This study uses the widely accepted cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY) outcome measure to evaluate three...

Laryngeal cleft in a 66-year-old man!

This is a fascinating case report of a 66-year-old man who presented with a carcinoma of the piriform sinus. During chemoradiotherapy, he developed dyspnoea, dysphagia and aspiration pneumonia. His chemoradiotherapy was stopped and he underwent a pharygnolaryngectomy. When the surgical...

Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma – slowly getting there

The rarest of the rare, sinonasal tumours form only a small part of the total number of head and neck tumours and undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC) is one of the rarest of this group. There is some data (and some expert...

Core or fine needle assessment in lymphadenopathy and salivary gland tumours

This paper from the Republic of Korea analyses 278 patients retrospectively, 112 of which underwent fine need aspiration and 166 core needle biopsies. Eleven patients had indeterminate fine needle aspiration cytology, six of whom had an additional core biopsy. The...

Widen the ostium or keep it: that is the question

The original concept of wide endoscopic sphenoethmoidectomy for sinonasal polyposis has been a well-established principle since 1995. However, with the evolution of the understanding of sinonasal physiology, this might change. The authors present arguments based on the evolutionary and developmental...

Acoustic schwannoma regression post-Gamma Knife treatment

In this retrospective study the authors studied the optimal interval following radiosurgery for differentiating between true growth of tumour versus pseudoprogression using serial volumetric data. A total of 118 patients with a median tumour volume of 0.74cm3 at Gamma Knife...

Lingual tonsils and obstrucive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS)

Obstructive sleep apnoea can be due to narrowing of the retrolingual space by hypertrophic lingual tonsils. The authors studied 11 patients (five males and six females with a mean age of 44.3 years and a mean BMI of 28.6). All...

Paediatric versus adult pituitary adenomas

This retrospective study compares paediatric with adult patients undergoing pituitary adenoma surgery over a period of 26 years at a single institution. All surgeries were performed via a sublabial approach using the operating microscope. An endoscope was used occasionally for...

Novel method for determining BCC margins

This correspondence describes a new technique for determining basal cell carcinoma (BCC) borders, to aid in obtaining clear peripheral resection margins. Whilst this can be straightforward in small well-defined nodular BCCs, some BCC subtypes are ill-defined or morphoeic, and resection...

Long-term quality outcomes of bimaxillary surgery of obstructive sleep apnoea

This is a review of 12 patients at two years postoperatively and again at at least 17 years. Successful outcome of a decrease in apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) of greater than 50% was thought to be success. Eight of the initial...

Are elective neck dissections needed during salvage laryngectomy?

There has recently been a move away from elective neck dissections in the setting of salvage laryngectomy. This has mainly resulted from an appreciation of the increase in morbidity, in particular pharyngocutaneous fistula formation, and an improvement in cross-sectional imaging...