Search

IEM – no noise is good noise!

Whether you’re an active musician or a music-loving commuter, noise exposure via music is a very real concern. Musician, sound engineer and Puretone Sales Manager, Deke Frickey, looks at where the dangers lie and the best ways to overcome them....

Otological problems in musicians

Musicians are understandably anxious about their hearing, and recent high-profile cases of noise-related hearing loss have resulted in huge changes in the music industry. Chris Aldren (otologist and violinist) explains. In the recent Oscar-winning movie, Sound of Metal, heavy metal...

Military noise induced hearing loss and the Lost Voices report: the evolution of earshot

Brigadier Robin Garnett gives us a snapshot of the 2014 Royal British Legion report on hearing problems of Service personnel and veterans. The difficulties in assessing and managing hearing loss are reiterated in this article, with an introduction to how...

Ear wax: the good, the bad, and the ugly

With ear wax removal being a core part of ENT and audiology services, Seth Schwartz gives us his dos and don’ts. We have all seen cartoons where a character pulls enough wax out of their ears to make a candle....

The ups and downs of overseas research – the inner ear at altitude

Conducting research at extreme altitude presents unique challenges. This study of the inner ear at 5350m navigates setbacks in a quest for scientific discovery. Having completed a diploma in mountain medicine in my foundation years, I decided to undertake a...

The ENT operating theatre viewed down the retrospectoscope

We learn much of our future by looking at our past; Douglas MacMillan provides us with a fascinating glimpse into his years as a junior doctor. The operating theatre was a somewhat alien environment in the late 1960s: theatre sisters...

The process of medical innovation

You’ve got an amazing idea for a new device. It is going to change how your speciality of surgery is practised. It will lead to better operative results and lower risks to patients – that’s amazing, can I see it?...

Have we reached our limits in endoscopic skull base surgery?

As being an anterior skull base surgeon becomes the aspiration of many ENT trainees, Professor Nicolai gives his personal insights into the future for this exciting subspeciality. Having been directly involved in the evolution of transnasal endscopic surgery (TES) since...

The drive for success: from the hockey pitch to the surgical field

A hockey ball is rock hard and can travel at 100 mph. Stopping it with your most vulnerable body parts seems an excellent metaphor for higher surgical training... Four years on from the 2012 Olympics presents an ideal time to...

Doctors’ health and wellbeing: depression in surgeons

Dr Clare Gerada and Richard Jones work for the Practitioner Health Programme (PHP), a specialist service for doctors and dentists in the London area with mental health / addiction problems (www.php.nhs.uk). Here they discuss some of their preliminary findings (specific...