UT ORL Update

Ronda Alexander, MD Assistant Professor   The Wall Street Journal reported recently that approximately 650 surgical fires are reported in U.S. hospitals each year, and another three to four times as many are “near misses” or unreported events.1 The risk…

Amber Luong, MD, PhD Associate Professor   As both clinicians and patients will attest, chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP) represents a challenging disease to manage. Functional endoscopic sinus surgery is often required and successful for the initial management, but…

Ronda Alexander, MD Assistant Professor   This March, I had the great opportunity to travel with a mission group to La Habana, Cuba. It was a result of some conversations I shared with my co-fellow over the course of our…

Amber Luong, MD, PhD, Associate Professor   Asthma is characterized by episodic lower respiratory symptoms (mostly commonly shortness of breath due to wheezing) that result from reversible pulmonary airflow obstruction. Many patients with asthma also suffer from allergic rhinitis and…

Amber Luong, MD, PhD Associate Professor   Over 50 million of people suffer from allergies a year in the United States. Many control their symptoms with over-the-counter medications and avoidance measures. A subset of allergy sufferers, approximately 3 million, has…

Samar Fakhri, MD Professor   In the traditional classification of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks, spontaneous (or idiopathic) rhinorrhea is included under the “normal-pressure” category. As such, the absence of a recognizable etiology is axiomatic to the diagnosis of a spontaneous…

Ronda Alexander, MD Assistant Professor   When considering vocal fold augmentation, the lynchpin of success is finding the perfect material for your patient’s indication. For those patients who are either unwilling or unsuitable for operative thyroplasty, injection medialization is an…

Martin J. Citardi, MD Professor & Chair   Over the past 12-15 years, rhinologists and general otolaryngologists have increasingly embraced the use of intraoperative surgical navigation in more complex endoscopic procedures of the paranasal sinuses. The lack of real-time imaging…

Martin J. Citardi, MD Professor & Chair   Since its introduction more than 3 years ago, balloon catheter dilatation of sinus ostia has engendered considerable controversy. In 2008, a variety of publications have provided additional information about the technology and…

Ronda Alexander, MD Assistant Professor   The past decade has seen vocal fold paresis gain a foothold in the diagnostic algorithm of otorhinolaryngologists. It is now accepted that neurologic impairments of vocal fold motion exist along a continuum and can…