Does the EarPopper(®) device improve hearing outcomes in children with persistent otitis media with effusion? A randomised single-blinded controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To provide an independent evaluation of the efficacy and safety of the EarPopper(®) in improving hearing outcomes in children with otitis media with effusion (OME) and reducing the ventilation tube insertion rate. STUDY DESIGN: Randomised single-blinded controlled trial. SETTING: The Ear Nose and Throat Department of a district general hospital (Heatherwood and Wexham Park). PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Twenty-nine children aged between 4 and 11 years diagnosed with persistent OME lasting at least 3 months with an average hearing of 25 dBHL or worse in the better ear were randomised to a treatment or control group for 7 weeks using random computer-generated codes. Syndromic children, children with developmental delay, previous grommets and cleft palate were excluded. The audiologists were blinded at the final post-treatment audiogram. RESULTS: After the seven-week period, the mean improvement in air conduction across all frequencies was 10.9 dBHL in the treatment group (P < 0.001) and 3.6 dBHL in the control group (P = 0.201). At every frequency, the treatment group had larger improvements in air conduction, the largest being at 4 kHz where the mean air conduction in both ears improved by 14.8 dBHL. Compliance with the EarPopper(®) was over 90%, the only side-effect reported being discomfort in the ears immediately after use which resolved and did not affect compliance. The ventilation tube insertion rate was 53.3% in the treatment group and 78.6% in the control group. Median follow-up time for all patients is 47.7 months. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that the EarPopper(®) is a safe, effective treatment option for children with hearing loss from persistent OME, and it reduces the rate of ventilation tube insertion. More studies with larger sample sizes are required to support our findings.

Meniere's disease: an evidence based approach to assessment and management.

Menière's disease (MD) is frequently over-diagnosed in both primary and secondary care. This is unfortunate given the significant medical and social implications of such a diagnosis. Difficulties may arise in differentiating the patient with true MD from those individuals with less clearly defined disorders of cochleo-vestibular function. In this review, we suggest a practical evidence based approach to assessment and management of the patient with MD.

Tonsillectomy may cause altered tongue sensation in adult patients.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of altered tongue sensation following tonsillectomy, and its relationship to different surgical techniques. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: District general hospital. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and four consecutive adults undergoing tonsillectomy, and 43 control patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Altered tongue sensation. RESULTS: Twenty-eight of 100 patients described altered tongue sensation post-tonsillectomy. No patients in the control group experienced altered tongue sensation. There was a difference in rates of altered sensation between tonsillectomy patient groups undergoing bipolar diathermy and 'cold steel' techniques (p < 0.019). Three months after surgery, 22/23 contactable patients reported complete recovery of tongue sensation. One patient experienced tongue paraesthesia persisting until one year post-tonsillectomy. CONCLUSION: Tonsillectomy resulted in altered tongue sensation in 28 per cent of our study group. Bipolar diathermy dissection was significantly more likely to cause altered sensation than cold steel dissection. Ninety-six per cent of these disturbances resolved by three months, all by one year. Possible alteration of tongue sensation should be discussed whilst obtaining consent for tonsillectomy.

'Bones of contention': a donor register for temporal bone donation?

INTRODUCTION: Temporal bone dissection is essential training for otological surgery. Organ retention scandals have made it difficult to obtain consent for cadaveric temporal bone removal. The current literature does not address the means of acquiring a steady supply of cadaveric temporal bones for medical education and training. The US national temporal bone registry has established a temporal bone donor bank for medical education and research. Could a similar programme in the UK be an answer to the paucity of temporal bones? OBJECTIVES: (1) To ascertain the degree of interest amongst our regional patient population in a 'living will' pledge for temporal bone donation for medical education and research. (2) To delineate a demographic profile of potential temporal bone donors. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: One thousand questionnaires were distributed to patients and relatives attending out-patient clinics; 920 people responded. RESULTS: Seventy per cent of respondents supported temporal bone donation for medical education and research. Potential temporal bone donors tended to be ENT clinic attenders, to suffer from hearing difficulties or to have had previous ear surgery (p<0.001). Strong support also came from non-ENT clinic attenders. CONCLUSIONS: There was strong support amongst our regional patient population for a 'living will' pledge for temporal bone donation for medical education and research. Based on our donor profile, we propose a temporal bone donor programme, starting on a regional basis with possible expansion nationwide. This programme would recruit donors from amongst patients attending ENT out-patient clinics, as a long term solution to improve the supply of temporal bones.

Artificial ear: A training tool for grommet insertion and manual dexterity.

Under European Working Time Directives, surgical trainees now have to attempt to gain adequate operative experience within newly-restricted working hours. Surgical skills training must therefore increasingly occur outside theatre and away from real patients, in a simulated environment. In ENT, we suggest that instruction and practice of grommet insertion may be greatly facilitated through the use of an artificial ear model, which can be assembled cheaply and quickly. Our 'ear' may also be used for manual dexterity exercises, which have the potential to be developed into validated tests of core ENT surgical skills in the future.

A non-randomized comparison of earwax removal with a 'do-it-yourself' ear vacuum kit and a Jobson-Horne probe.

OBJECTIVES: Do-it-yourself ear vacuum kits (ear vacs) have recently been introduced as an effective method of earwax removal. This study assesses the efficacy of ear vacs in comparison with a conventional mechanical method of earwax removal, the Jobson-Horne probe. METHODS: Forty healthy relatives who had accompanied family members to orthopaedic and haematology clinics were screened with otoscopy. Sixteen participants with earwax were selected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: (i) Weight of earwax removed, (ii) proportion of tympanic membrane visible before and after each intervention, (iii) participants' subjective assessment of any improvement in hearing. Suction pressure generated by the ear vac was also compared with that of microsuctioning. RESULTS: No earwax was removed with the ear vac but the Jobson-Horne probe was significantly more effective at removing a greater weight of earwax (P < 0.001, mean weight 92.4 mg). There was no improvement in visibility of the tympanic membrane after the ear vac but the Jobson-Horne probe restored visibility to 100% (P < 0.001). No participant felt that there was an improvement in their hearing after the ear vac, but the majority (88%) reported an improvement in their hearing after the Jobson-Horne probe. CONCLUSION: A Jobson-Horne probe is significantly more effective than an ear vac for the removal of earwax.

Diagnosis of geriatric patients with severe dizziness.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the causes of dizziness in older patients presenting to the general practitioner and the clinical characteristics at presentation that might guide the general practitioner to the likely cause of dizziness and the most appropriate specialty for subsequent referral if referral is required. DESIGN: A prospective case control study of older patients presenting with dizziness. SETTING: The initial assessment was made in four general practices, three urban practices and one inner city practice (Newcastle). Subsequent investigations were conducted randomly in the Neurocardiovascular Investigation Unit and the Otolaryngology (ENT) Unit at local University hospitals (Newcastle). PARTICIPANTS: Fifty consecutive patients more than 60 years of age presented with dizziness. Twenty-two age- and sex-matched case controls were recruited from the same general practices. MEASUREMENTS: Measurements were of diagnoses attributable to symptoms. RESULTS: Symptoms were of long duration (median 1 year). Forty-six percent of patients had syncope and/or falls in addition to dizziness. Twenty-eight percent had a cardiovascular diagnosis, 18% had a peripheral vestibular disorder, 14% had a central neurological disorder, 18% had more than one diagnosis, and 22% had no attributable cause of symptoms identified. A cardiovascular diagnosis was predicted by the presence of syncope (P < .001), dizziness described as lightheadedness (P < .001), the need to sit or lie down during symptoms (P < .001), pallor with symptoms (P < .001), symptom precipitation by prolonged standing (P < .05), and whether patients had coexisting cardiovascular disease (P < .05). The description of dizziness as "vertigo" predicted a peripheral vestibular disorder (P < .001). The predictive strength of these prognostic indicators was then validated on a separate sample of 50 additional older patients. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical characteristics can predict an attributable cause of dizziness in most older patients and thus guide general practitioners in treatment and appropriate specialist referral. The presence of syncope, falls, or cardiovascular comorbidity increases the likelihood of a cardiovascular diagnosis. Otolaryngological investigations are rarely diagnostic, but vertiginous symptoms do predict peripheral vestibular disorders.

Oroantral fistula: a complication of transantral ligation of the internal maxillary artery for epistaxis.

Transantral ligation of the internal maxillary artery (IMAX) is a well-described option for surgical management of posterior epistaxis not controlled by anterior and posterior packing. Advocates for this procedure argue that it reduces the morbidity, length of hospital stay and financial cost associated with prolonged nasal packing. The procedure is carried out through a Caldwell-Luc approach and the IMAX is clipped in the pterygomaxillary fossa. Fashioning of a nasoantral window is optional and its inclusion usually depends on the integrity of the sinus ostium. The commonest complications of transantral IMAX ligation occur when local structures including the inferior orbital and anterior superior alveolar nerves are damaged. The incidence of oroantral fistula following IMAX ligation is very low but those cases reported have been associated with the failure to create a nasoantral drainage window. We report two cases of persistent oroantral fistula complicating transantral internal maxillary artery ligation. No nasoantral window was fashioned in either of these cases.

Measurement of the vestibulo-ocular reflex by magnetometry during active head movement.

A new method of measuring the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) during active head movements is presented. Subjects sat and attempted to maintain their gaze upon a fixed point whilst turning their heads from side to side in response to an auditory cue, to attain frequencies of head rotation that increased from 1 Hz to 4 Hz during a 24 s period. Head movements were monitored by a small magnetic field detector worn on the subject's forehead and positioned a set distance from a magnetic field transmitter coil. Eye movements were monitored using the corneo-retinal potential. Gain (eye angle/head angle) and phase difference (eye phase-head phase) were calculated to define the VOR. Three repeat measurements were made on 20 normal subjects. Gain decreased significantly (P < 0.0001) with increasing frequency whilst the phase difference remained unchanged. The 95% prediction intervals were narrow for both gain (+/- 0.28) and phase (+/- 11 degrees). These data, together with the speed and ease of performance of the test, suggest that the test can provide valuable information on the performance of the vestibular system.

Is surgery necessary in stage III and stage IV cancer of the head and neck that responds to induction chemotherapy?

OBJECTIVE: To study the influence of surgery in patients who achieve a response to induction chemotherapy. DESIGN: Nonrandomized retrospective study. SETTING: Comprehensive cancer center. PATIENTS: The records of all patients with state III and stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity, oropharynx, and hypopharynx were reviewed at the Queensland Radium Institute, South Brisbane, Australia, in the years 1970 through 1990. INTERVENTIONS: There were 314 patients where induction chemotherapy was used as part of a curative treatment. Complete response occurred in 20 patients, partial response in 110 patients, nonresponse in 162 patients, and unknown response in 22 patients. To assess the impact of surgery, the responders were divided into two treatment groups: one group (n = 57) received chemotherapy surgery, and radiotherapy (C/S/XRT), and a second group (n = 73) received chemotherapy and radiotherapy (C/XRT). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Five-year survival, local failure, nodal failure, and distant failure. RESULTS: The 5-year actuarial survival for the chemotherapy responders and nonresponders was 58% and 43%, respectively (P < .05). When analyzed by treatment group, those receiving C/S/XRT had a 65% 5-year survival (95%) confidence intervals [CIs], 53 to 78) and those receiving C/XRT had a 56% 5-year survival (95% CI, 44 to 70). However, when the complete responders were assessed, those receiving C/S/XRT had a 90% 5-year survival (95% CI, 72 to 99) vs a 51% survival (95% CI, 18 to 89) for those treated with C/XRT. For the partial responders, the survival for the groups C/S/XRT and C/XRT were 59% (95% CI, 45 to 79) and 53% (95% CI, 41 to 67), respectively. Chemotherapy responders were less likely to fail locally if they were treated with C/S/XRT than with C/XRT (21% vs 43%, P < .01). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that surgery still has a role to play in patients who achieve a response with chemotherapy, even when the response is complete.

Effect of Beconase nasal spray on olfactory function in post-nasal polypectomy patients: a prospective controlled trial.

Numerous studies have postulated the possible benefit of corticosteroids on olfaction in patients with nasal/sinus disease. Twenty-nine patients with bilateral nasal polyps were included in our study using strict selection criteria to reduce other aetiologies of olfactory dysfunction. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) was performed pre-operatively on the right and left nostrils separately. Following intranasal polypectomy the patients received a six-week course of beclomethasone nasal spray (Beconase) to one nostril only, with the other acting as a control. The UPSIT scores were again obtained for each nostril separately. Wilcoxon Signed Rank test revealed no statistically significant difference in UPSIT scores between treated and untreated nostrils (p = 0.31; power 70 per cent; ES = 0.47). We conclude that topical beclomethasone does not improve olfaction following nasal polypectomy.

Bony remodelling in an osteoma of the paranasal sinuses.

Osteoma is the commonest benign tumour of the paranasal sinuses (Handousa, 1952). A case of a large osteoma removed from the frontal and ethmoid sinuses is presented. Histopathological examination of this tumour revealed evidence of bony remodelling similar to that seen in Paget's disease which has not been previously reported. The pathological significance of this finding is discussed.

Further studies on nasal sensation of airflow.

The effect of applying a eutectic mixture of local anaesthetics cream (EMLA) to the nasal vestibule, upon both nasal sensation of airflow and action of menthol was studied in 25 normal subjects. Anaesthesia of the vestibule was shown to decrease nasal sensation of airflow, p less than 0.001. The action of menthol in enhancing the sensation of nasal airflow was unchanged, p greater than 0.05. This shows that sensory nerve endings located within the nasal vestibule and mucosa, are likely to be important in conveying nasal sensation. This study expands basic scientific knowledge in this important clinical area. The site and nature of sensory nerve endings responsible and possible neurophysiological mechanisms involved are discussed.

Hearing loss due to cranio-metaphysial dysplasia.

Craniometaphysial dysplasia is a rare cause of conductive hearing loss. It is a genetic disorder of bone due to decreased osteoclastic activity in the endosteal and periosteal regions of craniofacial and long bones. The characteristic temporal bone abnormalities are attic fixation, abnormally shaped ossicles and obliterated foramina ovale. Computerised tomography is helpful in predicting operative findings; surgery should be reserved for those with a severe hearing loss.

Unusual case of bilateral conductive deafness.

A 30-year-old female presented with a ten-year history of bilateral conductive deafness. A pre-operative diagnosis of otosclerosis was made but at tympanotomy, the stapes crura in each ear was found to be disconnected from the footplate, the ossicular chain being otherwise normal. A Teflon-wire prosthesis was used to join incus and footplate, with good results. In the absence of a history of trauma or sepsis this may be a late presentation of a congenital stapedial anomaly which has not previously been reported.