Guided therapeutics in head and neck surgery, upper airway stimulation for sleep apnea, and personalized therapy for sinusitis highlighted at the Triological Society’s Combined Sections Meeting in Miami Beach, Fla. in January
Literature Review: A Roundup of Important Recent Studies
Newer surgical procedures not necessarily better; primary frontal sinus endoscopic surgery relieves frontal sinus symptoms in most; success following surgery to correct obstructive sleep apnea dependent upon scoring measures; intranasal splint use after surgery increases patient pain, provides few offsetting benefits; new reprocessing guidelines for ent endoscopes stress high-level disinfection techniques; multicenter study shows feasibility and safety of transoral robotic surgery.
Help or Hoopla?: Surgical robots can benefit otolaryngology
The large, roadside billboards advertised robotic surgery in bright, bold colors, something that struck David Eibling, MD, professor of otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh, as “fundamentally wrong.” Hospitals and physicians “should not be offering robotic surgery as a draw for patients,” said Dr. Eibling, who noticed the billboards while traveling through Florida earlier this year, “but rather as a potential tool to benefit the care of the patient.”
Robotic Surgery Offers Advantages for Infratemporal Fossa
Does robotic surgery provide better access to the infratemporal fossa (ITF), and is suprahyoid port placement an option? Background: Recent experimentation with robotic-assisted surgery has shown applications in head and neck […]
Scarless Surgery: The benefits and drawbacks of robotic thryroidectomy
Using robotic arms, surgeons can now remove the thyroid gland through an incision in the axilla, or armpit, thereby avoiding the large scar on the front of the neck caused by traditional thyroid surgery. The procedure offers no other benefits over the traditional approach developed a century ago by Emil Theodor Kocher, MD, according to head and neck surgeons who perform the robotic surgery. In fact, it takes longer to recover from the robotic surgery, they say, with some patients complaining of chest numbness for months afterwards.
Innovative Doctors + Better Technology = Practice Changess
Part 1 of a series
Stereotactic Radiotherapy: A Growing Opportunity for Otolaryngologists: Part 1 of 2
Part 2 of this article will discuss treatment options for skull base tumors.