This is a cross-sectional study from India where 69 patients were assessed for speech intelligibility and phonetics using an assessment tool in the local language. Volume defects were classified into thirds and the location of this defect noted. Not unsurprisingly,...
This is a retrospective study from Peking over the 10-year period, 2000-2010, for 137 patients with maxillary squamous cell carcinoma assessed. The overall survival rate was comparable with other studies at 64.8%. The most common Brown maxillary defect was 2b...
Gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) is one of the definitive stereotactic radiotherapy treatment modalities for vestibular schwannoma (VS) management. Its efficacy depends on the cobalt-60 source which has a half-life of 5.26 years. According to the study authors, the actual rate...
This is a review from Canada where they attempt to relate delays in oral cancer presentation to treatment and the impact on stage, diagnosis and survival. They recognise that potentially the most significant delay is between the patient first noticing...
Abnormal retropharyngeal lymph nodes (RLN) have prognostic relevance for patients with oral, oropharyngeal or nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). However, consensus on the evaluation and management of abnormal RLN in these patients is lacking. The authors of this paper provided...
Timely detection and effective management of this potentially fatal condition cannot be overemphasised. This study presents 16 cases over 12 months in a tertiary referral centre. Most patients had diabetes and others were immunocompromised due to radiotherapy, immunosuppressive medication or...
This review examines the changes in the field of anterior skull-base surgery and the rapid advancement that has taken place in the last 10–15 years. Tumours of the anterior skull base that were once considered inoperable are now routinely resected...
Recent data is providing accumulating evidence that treatment failure in the management of peritonsillar abscesses (PTAs, aka ‘quinsies’) is similar when these are managed with medical treatment (MT) alone versus MT plus surgical drainage (M+ST). However, in the absence of...
Cisplatin is a commonly used cancer therapy, with nearly 50% of patients undergoing chemotherapy receiving cisplatin as part of their regimen [1]. Depending on the dose, incidence of hearing loss has been reported as 12-100% in adults, and 37-94% in...
Neil Sharma paints an exciting picture of the future of head and neck surgery with nanobots and robot augmented humans – science fiction or reality? Time will tell. ‘May you live in interesting times’ reads the old Chinese curse. The...
4 November 2021
| Gouri Pantvaidya, Ameya Pai
|
ENT, Head and Neck
Transoral robotic surgery has an established role in head and neck cancer surgery. But how easy is it to set up a service in a resource-constrained environment? Gouri Pantvaidya and Ameya Pai give us a view from the Indian subcontinent....