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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...

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...

Database WG2. The Tinnitus Patient Database in the TINNET COST Action BM1306

Berthold Langguth describes an innovative project that is creating the world’s largest multi-national patient database containing standardised information on tinnitus and medical history, otological examination and psycho-acoustic measures of tinnitus. A challenge for tinnitus treatment and tinnitus research is the...

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...

10 steps to improving transition to adult services

Children and parents like the reassurance that staying under the care of the team who looked after them from birth gives, but as the child approaches adulthood he / she must come under the care of a new team. This...

A guided tour of the new thyroid nodule guidelines

The 2026 consensus updates thyroid nodule management with clearer risk assessment, tailored biopsy decisions and more consistent follow-up strategies. Setting off: why do we need new signposts? The management of thyroid nodules is familiar territory for many clinicians, but the...

The death of Attila the Hun, a 70s film and Japanese cartoons

The 6th century Gothic monk, Jordanes, tells us that Attila the Hun, the notorious and allegedly merciless barbarian (who was a prime mover in the fall of the Roman Empire), died of a nosebleed on his wedding night in 453...

The (Ancient Egyptian) ear that hears badly: otology in Ancient Egypt 1500 BC

The Ebers Papyrus was written around 1500 years before the birth of Christ, and is arguably the most complete and most beautiful of the medical texts to have survived from ancient Egypt. It was purchased from a Coptic antiquarian in...

Recent changes in vestibular science and assessment

Clinical assessment of the dizzy or imbalanced patient is all about the patient’s history. History, history, history. But what about puzzling cases when we feel we need more information? Sally Rosengren gives us a rundown of the vestibular tests which...

Victoria Possamai, Consultant Paediatric ENT Surgeon - A Tribute

Victoria Possamai, Consultant Paediatric ENT Surgeon, Evelina London Children’s Hospital. 30 August 1977 – 6 December 2024 It is with great sadness that we reflect on the loss of our wonderful colleague and friend Victoria ‘Vikki’ Possamai, Consultant Paediatric ENT...