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Head and neck radiation and the brain

An increasing number of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and other lesions are treated with high dose radiotherapy. An increase in survival rates is being reported along with a younger patient demographic. The long-term effects of treatment...

Risky behaviour: do care homes follow dysphagia recommendations?

A huge proportion of elderly people living in residential care homes will develop dysphagia. In Australia this is estimated at close to two thirds of all residents. It is the role of the speech and language therapist to make recommendations...

All you need to know about childhood hearing loss - an update

This is an excellent update on childhood hearing loss. It is a comprehensive collection of five chapters, providing a summary of a broad range of practice guidelines to inform screening, diagnosis, and management of hearing loss in children. It has...

Does ‘weekend effect’ alter post tonsillectomy haemorrhage rates?

Staffing levels are generally low over the weekends and senior physicians are less easily available. It is generally believed that this affects patients undergoing high-risk surgery. Whether doing tonsillectomy at weekends adds to the risks of post tonsillectomy haemorrhage is...

Endolymphatic sac surgery for Ménière’s disease

This is a very useful meta-analysis for those that perform surgery for Ménière’s disease. It specifically looked at differences in various forms of endolymphatic sac surgery (ESS). A total of 36 papers were included. The results: ESS controls vertigo in...

Deglutition in pharyngolaryngectomy patients

Circular defects after total pharyngolaryngectomy present a reconstructive challenge. In this study, the authors compared the swallowing results after three reconstructive techniques: free forearm flap, free jejunal loop and folded pectoralis major flap. Forty-six patients were included and were evaluated...

Bright young things: executive functioning in younger, older and aphasic people

Executive function comprises several higher order cognitive processes such as planning, organisation, adaptation, maintenance, monitoring and decision making. It is thought that difficulties in cognitive flexibility in people with aphasia are associated with difficulties in executive function rather than the...

Factors influencing transformation of laryngeal dysplasia to malignancy in a 10-year review

Laryngeal dysplasia has a propensity to change into malignancy, the generally reported rate of this being about 14%. In this retrospective study of 125 patients, the authors have assessed the severity of dysplasia in relation to the incidence and time...

The cocktail party conundrum

I feel, with slight sadness and disappointment, that a good cocktail party, dresses, punch bowls and all is not currently in its heyday and, therefore, opportunity of attending is slim. However, from what I remember, they tend to be a...

Skull Base Surgery: Strategies

This book sets out to highlight the decision-making process in this most complex and technically demanding area of surgical practice. Its aim, as described in the foreword, is to show the “decision making process of choosing and executing a surgical...