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Erasmus Darwin and the larynx – but why is it where it is and when?

Charles Darwin’s grandfather was not only on to where we all came from by the end of the 18th century, but dared to declare it in verse whilst resident in Lichfield Cathedral Close. This needed exceptional temerity, since not only...

Did you ever meet Draffin on your travels?

Draffin’s rods or bipods are a well-known ENT instrument. Before their invention in 1951, the attendant anaesthetist or nurse was obliged to support the mouthgag during tonsillectomy. Their originator, David Alexander Draffin (born in 1917 in Ballybey, Co Monaghan), was...

The golden nose – reshaping the nose 100 years ago

Wolf Lűbbers (with the golden nose). Who with a crooked nose would not embrace the chance to go to bed in the evening wearing a surgical device and wake up the following morning with a straight one? And all this...

Is one glass of wine on call safe?

It’s a standard question for those about to sit a Specialist Training (ST) interview; you are on call and you call a senior colleague in to perform an operation. You smell alcohol on the breath of the surgeon, so what...

Wound moisture sensing in traumatic wounds

Wounds can be small and unpleasant, or may be large and life-threatening. The skin is a physical and an immunological barrier to infection, and any defect in the integrity of the skin may enable bacterial or fungal invasion. The successful...

Pre-hospital care

For those of us that work within the acute hospital system, the sound of the trauma pager going off warning of an incoming casualty with as yet unknown injuries is often the sound of uncertainty and anxiety. When it becomes...

Clinical management: 
a personal view

When Nigel Beasley approached me to write on my experience of clinical management, I was a little surprised. I see myself as primarily a clinician, but have had increasing involvement with clinical management within my Trust. I am now in...

Cochlear implantation for single-sided deafness and asymmetric hearing loss

Continuing our sub-theme of cochlear implantation candidacy, Richard Irving and Raghu Kumar review the principles and benefits of cochlear implantation in individuals who have an asymmetric hearing loss. It is well known that cochlear implantation improves auditory capacity, and in...

Paediatric ENT trauma

Managing trauma in children often strikes terror in doctors who do not deal with children regularly. Kate Stephenson explains the approach to a child who has suffered ENT trauma and specific things to look for in children. ENT injuries are...

Getting It Right First Time in ENT

Andrew Marshall, a Consultant ENT Surgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, visited 126 departments across England before publishing his recent ENT surgery national report for the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme. Here, he explains how identifying unwarranted...