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Oscar Wilde’s Final Irony

The celebrated writer and poet, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on 16 October 1854 in Dublin. He distinguished himself as a classicist at Trinity College Dublin before, earning a scholarship to Oxford University, where he gained a double...

Themistocles Gluck – the true father of laryngectomy

Most head and neck surgeons and ENT-specialists may know that the first laryngectomy for cancer was performed by Billroth on 31 December 1873. Billroth´s assistant, Vincenz Czerny, had outlined the operation in experimental surgery on dogs in 1870. Three years...

Vicarious (nasal) menstruation

Hippocrates himself is known to have said that when a woman’s menses are due, but instead of the usual vaginal menstrual flow, she has a haemorrhage from the nose, then this is a sure sign of pregnancy [1]. Artist’s impression...

Down with the nose, down with it flat

In Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, Timon urges prostitutes to spread syphilis throughout Athens. He implores the whores, Phrynia and Timandra, to: Consumptions* sow In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,And mar men’s spurring*. Crack the lawyer’s voice**, That...

Diaphanoscopy of the paranasal sinuses (Halloween in ENT Practice)

Since time immemorial, humans have tried to enhance the limited capabilities of their sense organs. It would be a clear advantage to be able to see through objects and discern what lies inside or behind them! This concept of transillumination...

History of innovation in ENT

Innovation seems to have been in the strapline of every meeting, conference and course for the last few years. You would be forgiven for thinking it is a new a concept, but as Neil Weir beautifully details, innovation has been...

In conversation with Brian Westerberg and Fred Kozak

Dr Osler caught up with friends and colleagues, Dr Brian Westerberg, current IFOS Vice-President and IFOS 2021 World Congress President, and Dr Frederick Kozak, IFOS 2021 World Congress Vice-President and Scientific Committee Chair, to talk about their vision for the...

How will our grandchildren view COVID-19?

Alan Johnson, known to our readers as the former President of ENT UK, gives us his thoughts on the COVID pandemic, looking at it through the lens of other health crises. As I write, COVID-19 is displacing almost all other...

The multidisciplinary voice clinic

In his inimitable way, Nick Gibbins tells us why the voice clinic is the highlight of his week – and his very own field of dreams. The voice clinic has come a long way in the last 40 years. The...

The Medical Art Society

Historian, sculptor and general polymath Neil Weir neatly demonstrates the strong links between our speciality and the creative arts, along with his colleague from the Medical Art Society, Jeanette Cayley. At a summer meeting of the British Medical Association in...

ENT clinics – 50 years of progress…?

Cocaine in abundance, eustachian tube catheterisation, and the ever-present threat of a fire in the clinic… How have things changed in the last few decades? Retired ENT surgeon, Douglas MacMillan, tells us of his experiences starting out in the late...

Reflections on organising the British Academic Conference in Otorhinolaryngology 2015

As the Local Host and Programme Director of BACO 2015, Andrew Swift is a pivotal person with local knowledge and contacts. He provides us with some top tips as to how to go about organising a successful conference. The ACC...