Balancing the risks and benefits of concurrent reirradiation and chemotherapy for recurrent head and neck cancers is difficult for physicians at even the most experienced centers. Research recently published in Cancer, however, suggests that selection of patients who may benefit from this therapy should be based on the patient’s previous treatment and the amount of time that has elapsed since initial treatment…
Medicare requirements for physician supervision of speech-language pathologists conducting videostroboscopy (CPT 31579) and nasopharyngoscopy (CPT 92511) will move from the strictest level of oversight back to no national supervision level starting in October.
The biggest gains in the future for surgical and therapeutic treatments of head and neck cancer will likely include the use of imaging techniques, radio-enhancers and drug delivery vehicles that are really, really small.
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.”
Since the first report in 2008 of the effectiveness of propranolol to treat infantile hemangiomas, its use has grown among physicians who treat these tumors, which arise in 5 to 10 percent of infants. Among these infants, approximately 10 percent will require treatment to correct functional impairment or prevent lasting cosmetic deformity caused by the hemangioma.
For patients undergoing surgery, identification of known or suspected obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is critical to avoid or minimize surgical complications that are increased in these patients, experts said here last month at SLEEP 2011, the 25th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Dr. Johnson gave the presentation at COSM 2011.
Chemoradiation therapy (CRT) for head and neck cancer is overused at some centers in patients with early-stage laryngeal cancer, and more care should be taken not to overtreat patients with therapy that can have toxic effects, said invited lecturer Jonas Johnson, MD, at the Annual Meeting of the Triological Society, held here on April 29 as part of the Combined Otolaryngology Spring Meetings.
Physicians have noted the potential for dizziness in migraine patients since the 19th century. And yet the 21st century has so far failed to bring any unifying definition to a symptom that is frustratingly diffuse in its intensity and frequency and unclear in its origins.