Latest Clinical & Research News
Specialty: Otolaryngology
The Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital offers expert, individualized care for a range of conditions affecting the ear, nose and throat. Since 2017, Ravindra Uppaluri, MD, PhD, has served as the division chief for the group’s multidisciplinary faculty and staff.
Should allergy medications such as intranasal steroids and oral antihistamines be used to treat isolated otitis media with effusion (OME)? The answer is a resounding no, according to a review of previously collected data published in October’s Current Allergy and Asthma Reports. Rachel E. Roditi, MD, of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery is lead author of the paper.
A duo at Brigham and Women’s Hospital has developed a new intraoperative, image-based guidance system to help surgeons more accurately visualize anatomical structures. The technology uses augmented reality to precisely register operative endoscopy views with preoperative CT or MRI images, allowing for real-time adjustment and fine-tuning based on the operator’s changing visual field.
Clinicians at Brigham and Women’s Hospital are using hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HNS) to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients who struggle to tolerate the first-line therapy, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The Brigham is a leader in using the novel procedure, which involves surgically implanting a device in patients to relieve apnea episodes. HNS offers hope to those with OSA who are intolerant to CPAP.
In 2011, Brigham and Women’s Hospital made headlines as the site of the nation’s first full face transplant. In July 2019, the Brigham set another milestone with the world’s first full face transplant procedure on a black patient and the oldest recipient ever. It was the ninth face transplant at the Brigham and the 15th nationwide.
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Oral cancers account for about two percent of all malignancies and 1.2 percent of cancer-associated deaths. If oral cancer is caught early, the five-year survival rate is 82.8 percent. Once the cancer metastasizes, that rate drops to 28 percent.
A collaborative research team at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) has received a grant to study immunotherapy resistance in head and neck cancer. The team is one of a handful to receive a multi-year cancer immunotherapy research grant this year from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the Cancer Moonshot℠ program.
For decades, the medical and scientific community has looked for ways to repair damaged vocal cords through injectable agents. Current best practices involve the use of carboxymethylcellulose, hyaluronic acid or calcium hydroxylapatite (CaHA). However, these injectable agents do not provide permanent effects and typically carry the additional burden of requiring two people to perform the medialization procedure, thus adding to their cost.
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Face transplants are still infrequent enough that every one of them is considered a remarkable feat of medical collaboration and expertise. However, they no longer garner the news headlines that the first transplant did when it was performed in France in 2005.
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The expertise of the physicians and surgeons at Brigham and Women’s Hospital benefits patients well beyond New England. Through Partners in Health, the Boston-based nonprofit health care organization, specialists from the Brigham travel to hospitals in developing countries around the globe, offering patient care as well as training for local doctors.
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