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Tactile Sensing and Displays: Haptic Feedback for Minimally Invasive Surgery and Robotics

This book has a catchy title and due to my interest in developing simulation systems for training in surgery I was delighted to be asked to review. However, I found it very hard going and the first few chapters are...

ENT Medicine and Surgery: Illustrated Clinical Cases

“My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Forrest Gump may not have been an otolaryngologist, but he certainly nailed the day-to-day experiences of doctors, as does this textbook of...

Laryngeal Function and Voice Disorders

This is a detailed, 323-page resource covering laryngeal function and voice disorders, basic science and clinical assessment. Spanning nine chapters, the authors cover the anatomy and physiology of phonation, survey of voice disorders, voice diagnostics, acoustic analysis, aerodynamic analyses, endoscopy...

Predicting speech recognition in adults with cochlear implants

This was a combined prospective and retrospective study from Belgium that looked at factors influencing speech recognition scores in quiet conditions (retrospectively) and speech reception threshold levels (SRT) in fixed noise conditions (prospectively) after cochlear implantation in postlingually deaf adults....

Does endoscopic stapling for pharyngeal pouch supersede open repair?

Endoscopic stapling for pharyngeal pouch is generally considered to be less invasive, safe and with fewer complications, resulting in quicker recovery and a shorter hospital stay. Whether these factors hold in the long-term follow-up is the subject of this interesting...

Is combined two wall decompression approach a better surgical outcome for Grave’s orbitopathy?

This retrospective study looked at the outcome of endoscopic medial wall combined with transcutaneous lateral orbital wall decompression in Graves’ orbitopathy. The following parameters were studied: reduction in proptosis; change in visual acuity and diplopia. A total of 36 orbits...

Preserving hearing in NF2 patients

Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) is known to result in bilateral hearing loss, even when there is no significant tumour growth. The cause is postulated to be multifactorial: stretching and compression of the cochlear nerve by the tumour, impairment of labyrinthine...

Surgically improving pharyngeal paralysis and associated dysphagia

This was an interesting article explaining the current methods used to try and improve dysphagia and in some cases associated problematic aspiration following vagal injury. These patients are often those with other associated cranial neuropathies, with skull base lesions, brain...

Advancing the tongue in OSA surgery

This article further delineates the options for hypopharyngeal OSA and describes the technique of genioglossus advancement to improve the tension in the tongue base. The authors take the reader through the relevant anatomy appropriate to the procedure and describe the...

Surgery for hypopharyngeal obstruction causing OSA

Surgical treatments for OSA are evolving with improved diagnostic accuracy of the level(s) involved. Where the collapsing segment lies below the soft palate, a variety of surgical techniques to correct the affected segment(s) are emerging. This article concentrates on one...

Outcomes after facial nerve preservation surgery for large vestibular schwannomas

Large vestibular schwannomas (Koos grade three or four) are traditionally treated by surgical resection. Gross total resection of such large tumours often results in facial nerve dysfunction. Hence facial nerve preservation surgery was introduced in which maximal surgical resection is...