There can be few ENT surgeons who have not felt a sense of confusion when faced with a patient receiving regular treatment with one of the new oral anticoagulant drugs in a difficult case of epistaxis or in a case where the individual is scheduled for surgery. The paper by Kumar and Moorthy attempts to relieve this confusion and is most welcome.Reference Kumar and Moorthy1 They advise liaison with haematology colleagues and encourage protocols within trusts. This article complements the survey of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis by Nash et al.Reference Nash, Randhawa and Saeed2 and the audit of epistaxis management,Reference Hall3 both of which were published in The Journal of Laryngology & Otology last year.
For those with a bent for medical history, Rice's paper on the history of the tonsillectomy gag, inspired by a Barbara Hepworth painting, is a good place to start in the study of tonsillectomy history.Reference Rice4 Last year's paper of Lamprell and Ahluwalia is a run down of the named instruments on the tonsillectomy tray, which all staff should be familiar with.Reference Lamprell and Ahluwalia5
Implant science continues its onward march, and this issue contains papers that: compare an active middle-ear implant with conventional aids in mixed hearing loss,Reference Savaş, Gündüz, Karamert, Cevizci, Düzlü and Tutar6 investigate the preservation of hearing and cochlear structures in implanted children,Reference Skarzynski, Matusiak, Lorens, Furmanek, Pilka and Skarzynski7 and examine the use of implants in superficial siderosis.Reference Omichi, Kariya, Maeda and Nishizaki8
The old chestnut: the conundrum of voice versus airway in laser cordotomy is assessed by Asik et al. in a case series that showed the usual voice versus airway trade-off, with a more detailed analysis than usual of both voice and airway.Reference Asik, Karasimav, Birkent, Merati, Gerek and Yildiz9
Finally, after many years of waiting, we have an updated, manageable, single-volume ENT textbook that reflects UK practice, and which carries on a proud tradition of Scottish ENT education: the new Logan Turner's Diseases of the Nose, Throat and Ear: Head and Neck Surgery. This textbook is reviewed in The Journal.Reference Flood10 The old edition of the textbook was a mainstay of examination candidates' revision and this new ‘bible’ should fill that role admirably.
