Hoarseness: Can Evidence-based Medicine and Practical Experience Get Along?
Soham Roy, MD,FACS,FAAP Professor, Director As we move toward a world where medical treatments are judged not by pizzazz but by efficacy and cost-effectiveness, evidence-based medicine (EBM) has become the new thrust of medical education and practice. Along with…
Large Benign Goiters: Special Considerations for Management
Yitzhak Etan Weinstock, MD Assistant Professor The term “goiter” simply refers to an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland. There are multiple causes of goiters and their presence does not necessarily indicate that the thyroid gland is malfunctioning on…
Rhinoplasty for Nasal Obstruction
When Marya was only 22 years old, she was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis. Seventeen years later she has undergone two total knee replacements, as well as replacement of all of the metacarpophalangeal joints in both of her hands. “The…
Producing Quality Outcomes in Thyroid Surgery
Up to 50 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with a thyroid nodule at some time in their lives, found either by palpation or incidentally on a radiographic imaging study. About 4 to 7 percent of these nodules will be…
Functional Rhinoplasty: Repairing Nasal Valve Obstruction
The first line of treatment for most patients with nasal obstruction symptoms is medical therapy, but “Treatment of nasal valve obstructions begins with a complete evaluation and proper diagnosis,” says Tang Ho, MD, a fellowship-trained facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon…
A Cancer Patient Regains His Voice
Following surgical resection and stereotactic radiation therapy to treat a metastatic adenocarcinoma in his left cerebral hemisphere, Dick Smith’s voice was inexplicably reduced to a whisper. “Between his brain surgery in July and the Gamma Knife treatment in mid-August, Dick…
Bilateral Cochlear Implantation: Achieving a Stereo Effect
Sancak Yuksel, MD Associate Professor As we all know, normal hearing is binaural. Binaural hearing provides some major benefits: better and targeted hearing in a noisy environment, better localization of sounds, and more natural and balanced hearing quality. If…
Balloon Dilatation of the Sinuses for Chronic rhinosinusitis: Should we slow down and look at the data?
Amber Luong, MD, PhD Associate Professor Johnson & Johnson recently announced its acquisition of Acclarent for over $800 million. This acquisition and the recent survey for new CPT codes for the balloon sinus ostial dilation beg the question as…
Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: Management of the Neck
Ron J. Karni, MD Associate Professor & Chief Patients with Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (PTC) exhibit excellent rates of disease control and survival with total thyroidectomy and post-operative radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy. In the United States, overall survival is greater…
Functional Septorhinoplasty for Nasal Obstruction
Tang Ho, MD Associate Professor Nasal obstruction secondary to anatomic nasal deformities is a fairly routine problem seen by the otolaryngologists in the office, usually in the setting of someone who has failed medical management. While routine septoplasty and inferior…