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Outcome measures for hearing loss

This short editorial explores some possible options in measurement of quality of care in audiology. We traditionally tend to use clinician-related outcomes in place of patient-reported outcome measures and so we could miss a wealth of data on the impact...

Benefits of combined antiviral and corticosteroid therapy in Bell’s palsy and the role of decompression surgery

Early use of steroids has been established as standard management in Bell’s palsy but simultaneous use of antiviral agents has variable acceptance. This review article analyses statistically based evidence to settle the issue. High quality evidence from a 2009 Cochrane...

Preoperative tumour embolisation

This review article analyses the role of preoperative endovascular tumour embolisation in the treatment of a variety of hypervascular head and neck lesions including juvenile nasal angiofibroma, glomus tumour, carotid body tumours, and meningioma. Although the concept of tumour embolisation...

Thyroid nodule update

This excellent article summarises the current diagnostic difficulties with an endocrine gland that frequently produces nodules, some of which may harbour malignancy. At 50 years of age and over there is about a 50% chance of having a nodule; at...

Nasal peak inspiratory flow (NPIF) as a diagnostic tool for differentiating decongestable from structural nasal obstruction

Identification of the cause of nasal obstruction is critical before surgical intervention such as septoplasty. This study assesses changes in nasal peak inspiratory flow (NPIF) as a tool for discriminating decongestable versus structural obstruction. A cross-sectional study of 52 patients...

Controlling tinnitus

The absence of sufficient evidence for the use of integrated sound generators for the management of tinnitus led the authors to conduct a randomised blind clinical trial in which they compared the use of a conventional hearing aid with a...

An analysis of 60 treated cystic lesions in children

This is a retrospective single-centre study of 60 consecutive cases in children. Children aged four months to 14-years-old underwent intervention under general anaesthetic from 2000 to 2012. As one might expect, most of these cysts were mucoceles and ranulas. Of...

Endovascular management of cavernous and paraclinoid aneurysms

This review discusses management of aneurysms arising from the internal carotid artery from the entrance into the cavernous sinus until just before the take off of the posterior communicating artery. Whilst paraclinoid aneurysms do not tend to have ENT presentations,...

Office-based intralesional corticosteroids injections for subglottic stenosis. Is it effective?

Subglottic and proximal tracheal stenosis in adults has three main aetiologies: (a) prolonged endotracheal intubation; (b) idiopathic; (C) rheumatologic related. Endoscopic dilation is the mainstay treatment strategy for subglottic and proximal tracheal stenosis. Its major limitation is restenosis requiring repeated...

Back to the future: aphasia therapy post stroke

When speech and language therapist first started working with people with stroke-related aphasia, they employed a general stimulation approach, the same with every patient they met. In the '70s this changed, and a more tailored approach was developed whereby therapists...

Ethanol ablation for benign cystic neck lesions

Benign cystic head and neck lesions have traditionally been managed conservatively or with surgical excision. Ethanol ablation (EA) has now established a role in the management of benign thyroid cysts, and its use has also been expanded to non-thyroid cysts....

Not as rare as we think? Silent sinus syndrome incidence on CT heads

It is relatively uncommon to come across a case of silent sinus syndrome (SSS), but not as rare as the prevalence in the literature might suggest – the authors of this study note that only 100 cases are reported in...