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Treatment of olfactory dysfunction

The sense of smell is crucial to our being able to relish food and experience our environment. Olfactory dysfunction has been trivialised or ignored previously, but the negative consequences of the loss of sense of smell are being increasingly highlighted....

Diagnosing complications of acute mastoiditis in emergency situations

In many cases, acute mastoiditis is manageable with intravenous antibiotics and hospitalised care. However, the decision whether to intervene surgically remains crucial and reliance is based on radiological findings – CT scans for bony changes and MRI for possible intra-cerebral...

Assessment of audiological needs

A thorough assessment of audiological needs is crucial for a successful audiological rehabilitation. This study concentrated on creating the Québec Audiological Assessment Protocol for Younger and Older Adults (QAAP-YOA) that could be easily adopted in audiological clinics. The authors used...

Outcomes and progress of a well-designed one-stop head and neck lump clinic

With increasing caseload of head and neck cancer and the fact, as reported by UK Government in October 2024, that over half of these cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, the need for early diagnosis and prompt management is...

Vitamin C analgesia for UPPP

Postoperative pain management after uvulopharyngopalatoplasty is a common clinical problem. This well-designed study from Iran describes the novel use of vitamin C as an analgesic. The precise mechanism of action is not clearly defined, but appears to be related to...

How the world sees facial palsy patients

This paper from Australia gives an insightful perspective on the impact of facial paralysis on patients, and may explain the well-documented poor quality of life scores in this patient group, particularly those ‘successfully reconstructed’ with surgery. It explores how the...

Septal surgery made easy?

The injecting of the greater palatine canal has been documented for some time. The authors in this paper expand this to the more common procedure of the septoplasty. They summarise the pros and cons published regarding the technique in sinus...

Can obstructive snoring affect the snorer’s ears as well?

Patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) often show severe nasal obstruction, chronic sinusitis and/or a deficit of nasal mucociliary clearance with nasopharyngeal stagnation of secretions possibly predisposing to eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD). This clinical prospective study investigates ETD, nasal resistance...

Association of childhood OME with obesity

Many factors influence the development of otitis media with effusion (OME) in children, some of them being increased plasminogen factor inhibitor (PAI-1) levels, eustachian tube obstruction and gastro-oesophageal reflux. These factors are also associated with obesity. Sixty children with mean...

Factors affecting compliance of follow-up of patients with chronic otitis media

Patients with retraction pockets and small cholesteatomas need good surveillance as well as those surgically treated for cholesteatomas. This is particularly important in closed techniques where a second look or diffusion weighted MRI can pick up any recurrence or residual...

Is epistaxis affected by the weather?

In this Bosnian study, the authors attempted to determine if air pressure, temperature and humidity had any effect on idiopathic epistaxis. The study took place over a three-year period and included 300 patients. A comparison was performed of meteorological data...