It is recommended by John Fenton that we as a specialty need to embrace the concept of, take responsibility for and learn from all near-miss events, rather than our traditional haphazard approach of an occasional educational anecdote or case report....
Healthcare systems and training programmes vary significantly across the world. By learning about other healthcare systems, we can identify blind spots in our own system and continue to improve training. Sofia Anastasiadou, an ENT Registrar in South West England, describes...
The fifth edition of Cyber Textbook of Operative Surgery by ENT Masterclass has been a game changer. It is probably the world’s largest ‘virtual library’ of ENT surgical videos with over 540 videos of ‘surgical masters’ from International Centres of...
Advanced ENT Training - A guide to passing the FRCS (ORL-HNS) examination is a book that really understands its readers. Trainees preparing for their exams are led through common viva topics in an engaging question-and-answer format. The book covers all...
The team from Birmingham have provided a meta-analysis to answer the question of when to perform a type 1 tympanoplasty on chronic paediatric perforations (under 18 year olds). Forty-five studies were included which resulted in 2609 cases. Closure rate at...
There has been a global shift to providing children with severe-profound deafness cochlear implants (CIs) before they are 12 months old. Early intervention is critical and one of the overriding factors in successful outcomes for children with CIs. Early implantation...
Another pill to cure the ill? Alec Lapira discusses the warning signs of polypharmacy in the elderly population. Polypharmacy in the elderly Polypharmacy – defined as the use of five or more medications – occurs in 20–37% of older people...
This article regarding ankyloglossia raises an eyebrow; surely it’s just a snip isn’t it? Seemingly not. The authors describe two types of tongue tie – the first being posterior, with the frenulum being short and tight, the second being anterior,...
Vasant Oswal was, for many years, ‘Mister ENT’ in the Northeast of England. Appointed as a consultant to the old North Riding Infirmary in 1970, he led what was a small and little-known department through a period of tumultuous change...
Threshold equalising noise (TEN) testing is used to identify dead regions (DRs) of the cochlear. Alexandra Lusty considers the challenges of using the TEN test in the paediatric population as well as the importance of identifying DRs. Diagnosing dead regions...
JGG Ledingham was a famously affable man, the very epitome of the Oxford academic clinician with a legendarily unruffled bedside manner and razor-sharp intellect. He was awarded a personal Chair in Medicine in 1989 and such was his sangfroid, I...
Salivary gland obstruction is a common condition – it is recognised by a complaint of intermittent meal-time swelling of the affected salivary gland and can be accompanied by recurrent infections. Imaging can identify the nature and location of an obstruction...