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The future: brain imaging for aphasia rehabilitation

Technology offers our patients vast potential, yet the research literature in this area is often technical and difficult to translate to the day-to-day clinical setting. This article aims to review structural and functional imaging methods and discuss how they are...

The effect of sleep deprivation on auditory processing

This article caught my eye for personal and professional reasons. As a full time ENT trainee working 24-hour on-calls, I also have young children who have never slept through the night and don’t respect weekends or days off. My FRCS...

Choosing our tools: assessing language in dementia

Language led dementia, also known as primary progressive aphasia (PPA), is an emerging area of practice in speech and language therapy. Given that the diagnosis centres around the key diagnostic feature of language, whereby language impairment is the most prominent...

The effects of paediatric tracheostomy

Paediatric tracheostomy is usually an essential procedure to preserve life, or to allow a patient to function in the community. However, the effect of tracheostomy on the developing child - care requirements, lack of voice, impaired swallow, constant risk of...

Training people with Parkinson’s disease and their partners to have better conversations

Parkinson’s disease is predominantly considered a motor disorder, impacting speech, particularly voice volume, amongst other physical functions. Language and cognitive difficulties, such as difficulties in word finding and social pragmatics are also a key feature of Parkinson’s disease. Given the...

Impact of vestibular rehabilitation on patients with peripheral vestibular disorders

Vestibular rehabilitation is a widely used treatment for vestibular dysfunction. It can improve dizziness, fall risk, balance, and emotional status. However, some patients do not get benefit from vestibular rehabilitation. In this study, the authors assessed the impact of dizziness...

Effect of peripheral and central vestibular dysfunction on sense of direction

Sense of direction (SOD) is the ability to orientate ourselves and to determine the locus of objects in our environment. The vestibular system plays a key role in spatial orientation by encoding angular acceleration in the absence of visual cues...

Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness: a functional neuro-otologic disorder

Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) is a neuro-otological disorder that is the most common cause of chronic vestibular syndrome. It is not a purely structural or psychiatric disease but a functional disorder. The authors reviewed the literature to summarise the diagnostic...

Postoperative complications in OSA patients

This well researched meta-analysis describes the various complications obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients may acquire after surgery. These American reviewers found that OSA patients after non-upper airway operations, were more like to suffer (compared to non-OSA patients), from the following...