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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...

Postoperative complications in OSA patients

This well researched meta-analysis describes the various complications obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients may acquire after surgery. These American reviewers found that OSA patients after non-upper airway operations, were more like to suffer (compared to non-OSA patients), from the following...

A conservative approach to treat ameloblastoma

Ameloblastoma is an odontogenic tumour that is benign but locally aggressive and is associated with local recurrence. They are rare, accounting for 1% of oral tumours, and occur almost exclusively in the jaws. It is more common in the mandible...

Coupler microvascular anastomoses: how good?

This paper is written by a group of reconstructive surgeons and a school of computing. The study used computational fluid dynamics to model blood flow through idealised sutured and coupled vessels, to investigate if differing anastomotic techniques affect intravascular blood...

Resection margins in head and neck surgery

Although an increasing proportion of head and neck malignancies are treated with non-surgical modalities, when surgery is undertaken an incomplete clearance results in significantly worse prognosis. However, the intraoperative assessment of an adequate margin is difficult. The personal practice of...

Speech perception in the ageing population

Speech perception can present a challenge as we grow older. One of the factors responsible is, of course, hearing loss. Now research indicates that other non-auditory factors like cognitive decline may also contribute to difficulties in understanding speech. The authors...

Anatomy revision

This article is well-received as an article that goes into appropriate length and depth regarding the embryology and subsequent growth of the paediatric nose (internal and external), nasopharynx and all of the individual sinuses. It has excellent line diagrams of...

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...

Zinc and rhinosinusitis

Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) in general, and those with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) in particular, have been shown to have down-regulation of tight junction genes. Zinc, on the other hand, is well-known for its role in immune regulation and deficiency...

Predictors of postoperative improvement after endoscopic sinus surgery in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis

Improvement after endoscopic sinus surgery in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis varies considerably. If elaborate preoperative and intraoperative data could be used to predict the postoperative course, management and length of the follow-up could be adjusted to provide optimal care. Two...

Superior semicircular canal dehiscence volumetry

Superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SSCD) syndromes is a well-known entity in neurotology. Currently the size of the bony dehiscence is measured using two dimensional lengths. The authors present a novel method to measure the volume of the dehiscence and its...

Maxillomandibular advancement for sleep apnoea

This is a meta-analysis compiled from India. Of the initial 103 publications, 20 were analysed. Surgical cure was defined as postsurgical AHI of fewer than five events per hour. Of the 251 patients assessed for AHI, 12 were considered normal,...