Ron Karni, MD Invited to Speak in Panama
Ron Karni, MD, a board-certified otorhinolaryngologist at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, was among a group of 10 physicians from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School invited to deliver lectures at the National Cancer Institute…
Coding for Innovation
Martin J. Citardi, MD Professor & Chair Otorhinolaryngologists, like other physicians, consider innovation to be a core driver in improving the health of patients, since innovation offers the promise of new therapeutic alternatives. In the ideal world, innovation improves…
Management of Thyroid Nodules in Children
Sancak Yuksel, MD Associate Professor In contrast to adults, the diagnosis of a thyroid nodule in children is rare. In these cases, the workup and treatment generally follows the guidelines set forth by the American Thyroid Association (ATA) and…
What is Laryngoplasty?
Ronda Alexander, MD Assistant Professor Often in medicine, our ability to treat disease outpaces our reconstructive capacity. This was long the case in Otolaryngology which for years provided curative surgery but had little to offer patients who suffered cosmetic…
New Clinical Practice Guideline for Tonsillectomy
Soham Roy, MD,FACS,FAAP Professor, Director A tremendous amount of media attention has been paid recently to tonsillectomy surgery in children, partially due to President Obama’s comments on tonsillectomy during the pivotal September 2009 speech to the nation on healthcare…
2011 CPT Introduces New Codes for Balloon Dilatation of Paranasal Sinus Ostia and Surgical Navigation
Martin J. Citardi, MD Professor & Chair The 2011 edition of Current Procedure Terminology introduces several new codes that will likely have a major impact on the reimbursement for procedures of the paranasal sinuses. The changes reflect the culmination…
Should HPV status guide treatment in oropharyngeal carcinoma?
Ron J. Karni, MD Associate Professor & Chief Over the past decade, a rise in the incidence of oropharynx cancer has been associated with HPV positivity. This shift in the demographics of head and neck cancer may be related…
A New Dawn for Migraine…Botox
Ronda Alexander, MD Assistant Professor It’s not unusual for a treatment that clinicians anecdotally ‘know’ works to remain unpaid by insurers who classify it as experimental. This is due, in part, to the wait for research that proves the…
No More Surgery for Airway Hemangioma?
Sancak Yuksel, MD Associate Professor Two years ago a group of French physicians, Leaute-Labreze et al. reported their spectacular results in treating infantile hemangiomas with oral propranolol, an antihypertensive drug. This very recent and serendipitous discovery seems to change…
Finding the Unknown Primary in Head & Neck Cancer
In mid-summer 2010, 46-year-old Houstonian Paul Wyett found a found a small lump on his neck that he thought was an ingrown hair. “It swelled up and then went away but never completely disappeared,” he says. His primary care physician…