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Lost and sound: exploring hyperbaric oxygen therapy for refractory SSNHL

Can hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) offer a breakthrough for patients with refractory sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL)? SSNHL is defined as acute hearing loss of ≥30 decibels in three consecutive frequencies within three days. Typically, it’s treated with two weeks...

Drug eluting stent vs INCS for CRS

A prospective, randomised study from Finland to compare a drug eluting stent (DES) and intranasal corticosteroids (INCS) in 63 patients as assessed by SNOT-22, VAS, endoscopy, CT and rhinometry pre-treatment, at three and six months post treatment. Recruitment was over...

Outcomes of office-based biopsies for laryngopharyngeal carcinoma – faster diagnoses and equivalent oncological outcomes as compared to biopsies under general anaesthesia

Patients in the UK with head and neck cancers are the most likely to face long waits to treatment in comparison to other cancer sites, with only just over half commencing treatment within 62 days of being referred on a...

Dysplasia at the margins of laryngeal cancer specimens following laser resection – is conservative management appropriate?

Transoral laser microsurgery (TOLM) remains the cornerstone of treatment for early laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas. Whilst the hope is always to achieve a complete surgical excision with clear margins, it is sometimes the case that on histological analysis, disease is...

SPECT scans not justified in growth of the mandibular condyle

This is a paper from Hong Kong of 200 patients between January 2011 and July 2013 who underwent SPECT bone scintigraphy for assessment of growth causing condylar hyperplasia and subsequent mandibular asymmetry. Thirty-four patients were found to have active growth...

Prognostic value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer

The authors propose that high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is associated with poor disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with human papillomavirus positive (HPV+) oropharyngeal cancer (OPC). This is a retrospective study that compared the outcomes of 43 patients treated for HPV+...

‘What was I talking about?’ Memory and discourse in language impairment

This article discusses the function of the three theoretical components of working memory and their influence on discourse (the phonological assembly, the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer). The authors emphasise that the buffer is the key conceptual component responsible...

Role of intranasal steroids after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Rhinosinusitis often follows radiotherapy in the treatment of carcinoma of the nasopharynx. The interval and severity may vary with the dose of radiation and stage of the carcinoma. In this randomised, controlled study, patients who developed rhinosinusitis after radiotherapy treatment...

Smoking and immunotherapy – does it worsen outcome?

This interesting study aimed to address the issue of smoking in patients who had their allergic rhinits treated by sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT). Assessment was with validated quality of life questionnaires. There were 163 patients recruited in Greece who had completed...

Surgical indications for infantile haemangiomas

Infantile haemangiomas are embryonal tumours and represent the most common tumour of infancy, with an estimated incidence 4-5%. There is well-described natural history, usually becoming apparent in the first few weeks of life and proliferating rapidly in the first few...

Outcomes after facial nerve preservation surgery for large vestibular schwannomas

Large vestibular schwannomas (Koos grade three or four) are traditionally treated by surgical resection. Gross total resection of such large tumours often results in facial nerve dysfunction. Hence facial nerve preservation surgery was introduced in which maximal surgical resection is...