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1038 results found

Less pain more gain: impact of prophylactic gabapentin on swallowing outcomes in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment

Patients planned for chemoradiation to the head and neck are usually advised to expect some pain and soreness during their treatment and that pain relief will be offered as and when it is required. Uncontrolled pain and mucositis affect oral...

Hearing provides cues for the maintenance of balance

It is well known that balance relies on the integration of vestibular, visual and proprioceptive cues. However not much mention or attention has been given to the importance of auditory cues for balance maintenance. The authors set up experiments to...

Advances in surgical innovation for head and neck cancer

This article reviews current advances in surgical treatment of head and neck cancers such as sentinel node biopsy, stereolithic modelling, transoral robotic surgery and intra-operative imaging of tumour margins. Sentinel node biopsy has been found to be especially useful for...

Nasal steroids do not cause ocular problems

This excellent, high quality and detailed systematic review from Australia dispels the myth propagated recently by some poorly designed studies that intranasal corticosteroids cause intraocular problems. A 40 year review of the usual databases found 665 articles and 19 were...

Suspect the unsuspecting in thyroid cancer

This article reminds readers of how often invasive thyroid disease can appear, as the symptomatology is minimal. Noticeable airway symptoms appear after 50% of the airway is involved and surgeons can often fall in the unsuspecting trap of discovering locally...

Bone anchored hearing devices in very young children

This paper presents results of BC devices in very young children and helps inform an honest discussion of risks / benefit with prospective parents. The authors of this article from Starship Children’s Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand have a series of...

Pomegranate juice as an otoprotective agent

Chemotherapeutic agents such as cisplatin, given alongside irradiation, offer a survival advantage in head and neck cancer. Some patients often complain bitterly about side-effects of their treatment, one of which is ototoxicity. In this paper, the authors propose the use...

Hearing loss in the contralateral ear after mastoid drilling

It is difficult to conceive that most of the noise generated by drilling the mastoid would not be conveyed to the contralateral cochlea, by direct transmission through the skull bone, where the attenuation factor is only 5-10 dB. Only a...

Inter-aural hearing preservation in cochlear implantation

Hearing preservation during cochlear implantation is becoming increasingly important, although results can be unpredictable. NICE are in the process of updating their guidance in the UK and it is possible that those with better hearing than the current candidates will...

A novel scale for the assessment of tracheoesophageal voice quality – the SToPS

There is currently no assessment tool in widespread use that permits a valid and reliable perceptual assessment of voice quality following laryngectomy. Such a scale is needed to investigate the functional outcomes of surgical voice restoration and rehabilitation regimes. Existing...

Minimally invasive surgery vs. linear incision for BAHA – outcomes compared at six months

The postoperative outcomes which are clinically relevant now in bone anchored hearing device surgery have come a long way over the past decade. The newer techniques have meant that previous concerns with skin numbness and cosmesis are now such rare...

Patient-reported outcome measures: what do the people say?

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) assess and quantify health outcomes from the patient’s perspective. Defining these questionnaires as outcomes indicates that they are psychometrically sensitive to change. This article describes three PROMS: namely the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS),...