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How safe is sinonasal surgery for the operating surgeon in times of COVID-19?

I’m sure we have all wondered how safe we are in the operating theatre from virus circulating in the room and therefore the risk of subsequent COVID-19 infection. The authors addressed this by measuring the airborne particle concentrations in the...

Tympanostomy tubes outcomes by tympanic quadrants- a meta-analysis

Tympanostomy tube (TT) insertion is one of the most common ENT procedures, resulting in millions of TTs being implanted per annum and occurring complications that need to be addressed. Premature TT extrusion (PTTE) is a well-recognised such complication, affecting almost...

Ultrasound-guided core biopsy of neck lumps as first-line investigative modality supersedes fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of neck lumps

Ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (USFNAC) when applied as initial investigation often proves non-diagnostic, the incidence being as high as 50% in a recent audit. In this study, the authors applied ultrasound-guided core biopsy (USCB) to neck lumps over 1cm...

Endovascular therapies for venous tinnitus

Tinnitus is an extremely vexing issue, not only for patients but also for otolaryngologists. The authors of this article review the causes of venous tinnitus, such as increased intracranial hypertension (IIH), dural venous sinus thrombosis and age-related anatomic variants. They...

Let the maths do the talking for word-finding difficulties

Anomia (word-finding difficulties) can arise when a person has a stroke, dementia or other neurological disorder affecting the left (typically) hemisphere of the brain. There are lots of theories underlying the process of word retrieval, many of which have not...

Why do some people get their smell back so quickly after a COVID infection whilst others don’t?

Of course, we are all too familiar with the effect that COVID-19 infection has on our sense of taste and smell, but why do most patients get better whilst, for many, the misery lingers on and on? This paper looks...

Vestibulo-ocular reflex and postural control in deaf children

The authors evaluated the impact of canal paresis detected by video head impulse test (vHIT) on postural control tested by platform posturography in children with sensorineural hearing loss. The study included 55 children (4-16 years old) with variable degrees of...

Loudness in non-organic hearing loss

Non-organic hearing loss has been of interest to researchers for a long time. In this study the authors compared a loudness rating measured in relation to the sound level for 1000 Hz in normal hearing patients and patients diagnosed with...

Speech predictors after glossectomy

This is a cross-sectional study from India where 69 patients were assessed for speech intelligibility and phonetics using an assessment tool in the local language. Volume defects were classified into thirds and the location of this defect noted. Not unsurprisingly,...

Don’t be too apologetic: disclosing communication difficulties

People who stutter are frequently considered less intelligent or less confident, and are often discriminated against. These negative perceptions have been found to differ slightly across different cultural groups. For Hebrew speakers in Israel, having a stutter can have a...

How patients reacted to postponement of cochlear implant surgery due to COVID-19

The onset of COVID-19 in 2020 required widespread cancellation of elective surgeries, one of these being cochlear implant for profoundly deafened adults and post-lingually deafened children. Through a questionnaire, to which 23 out of 38 patients responded, this qualitative study...

Swallowing and breathing: speech and language therapy

Swallowing difficulties are a common comorbidity in just over a quarter of people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Given the associated risks of aspiration and exacerbation of COPD symptoms, speech and language therapists (SLTs) can offer valuable guidance...