Personal listening devices are commonly used in today’s society, often at high volumes and for long time periods, a fact which has been borne out by previous studies.Reference Seedat, Ehlers, Lee, Mung’omba, Plaatjies and Prins1 A study by Saniasiaya et al., in this final issue of The Journal of Laryngology & Otology of the year, specifically assesses the effects of personal listening devices on vestibular function among healthy adolescents and young adults.Reference Saniasiaya, Kulasegarah, Seluakumaran and Prepageran2 A total of 131 participants were recruited into their study. Sound exposure levels among adolescents were found to be higher than among young adults and were noted to result in more saccular damage in adolescents. Thus, the same noise exposure which damages the cochlear hair cells is postulated to also damage the vestibular hair cells of the saccule; the saccule being more prone to earlier noise-induced damage than the utricle and semicircular canals because of the anatomical proximity of the saccule to the stapes footplate. The authors conclude that vestibular assessment should form an important part of the assessment of the effects of noise exposure, in addition to hearing assessments, and should be performed alongside hearing assessments.
Previous studies both in The Journal and elsewhere have reported on the beneficial effects of tranexamic acid in reducing blood loss, decreasing surgical duration and improving surgical field quality.3–Reference Robb8 A systematic review in this month’s issue reports on the evidence for tranexamic acid, specifically in relation to otological surgery.Reference Domaszewski, Khatib, Goodwin, Dakhel, Andrews and Rangel9 Five studies are included, including ear procedures such as tympanoplasty, atticotomy, mastoidectomy, ossiculoplasty, stapedotomy, tympanotomy and microscopic modified radical mastoidectomy. The systematic review and meta-analysis indicates that tranexamic acid has potential advantages in otological surgery, such as reduced intra-operative bleeding, decreased mean arterial blood pressure and improved surgical field visibility. Further randomised controlled trials are required to validate the findings and reduce inter-study heterogeneity.
Office-based procedures, performed under local anaesthesia, are becoming more commonplace in ENT departments and clinics across the UK and internationally.Reference Balai, Bullock, Ross and Ferguson10–Reference Gokani, Sadik, Espehana, Jegatheeswaran, Luke, Philpott and Nassif14 A randomised controlled trial in this month’s issue compared the effectiveness of coblation and radiofrequency, both under local anaesthesia, in turbinate volume reduction.Reference Elzayat, Gehad, Abdulghaffar, Shady and Elgendy15 Ninety patients were randomised across the two groups. The authors found that both techniques are tolerated, safe and effective for office-based turbinate reduction under local anaesthetic in cases mainly with soft tissue component turbinate hypertrophy. Radiofrequency seemed to have a more rapid effect, but caused more pain and crust formation than coblation.
The Senior Editors would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to The Journal this year, including all the authors, Assistant Editors, our Managing Editor, reviewers, advisers, production staff, our publishing partners at Cambridge University Press and all other colleagues at The Journal. Finally, we wish all of our readers a happy and successful new year.
JONATHAN FISHMAN
ANN-LOUISE MCDERMOTT
STEPHEN JONES
Senior Editors
