The Editors and Staff of The Journal of Laryngology & Otology wish all readers and subscribers a successful 2015. We will endeavour to continue publishing a wide range of articles of interest to all within the field of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery.
As Editors, we are always keen to publish articles that may also be of interest to a non-medical audience. Most of such articles alert the public to specific health risks. Information is disseminated by press releases issued by our publishing partners Cambridge University Press. These are then reproduced in the UK national media. Examples of recent alerts include the dangers of ‘wind turbine syndrome’Reference Farboud, Crunkhorn and Trinidade1 and excessive noise exposure caused by travelling in open-topped sports cars.Reference Mikulec, Lukens, Jackson and Deyoung2 An article in the present issue, which was taken up by national media following a press release, alerts parents to the danger of ‘loom bands’. Many readers will be aware of the current loom band craze in which rubber bands are woven into bracelets. The article by Bohler and colleagues documents four children who presented with loom bands as nasal foreign bodies in a 4-day period.Reference Bohler, Douglas and Ansari3 The authors highlight the potential for more serious complications caused by the inhalation of loom bands. Button batteries are also potentially lethal ENT foreign bodies. Another article in this issue describes an innovative method of removing a button battery from the external ear canal.Reference Nivatvongs, Ghabour and Dhanasekar4
Two articles in the current issue focus on obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Kumar and colleagues review the evidence for the use of nasopharyngeal airway stenting devices in OSA patients.Reference Kumar, Guilleminault, Certal, Li, Capasso and Camacho5 In this respect, the evidence is mixed: some stenting devices have shown limited effectiveness and low tolerability, whereas others have shown significant benefit with high patient acceptability. Another article, by Acar and colleagues, investigates the effect of OSA on oral and dental health,Reference Acar, Cingi, Özdaş, Türkcan and Bal6 with the knowledge that open-mouth breathing can have an adverse effect. In an analysis of 291 patients, they found that OSA had no significant effect on dental health as determined by the decayed, missing and filled teeth index. This article adds to information on the management and presentation of OSA recently published in The Journal.Reference Camacho, Capasso and Schendel7, Reference Mackay, Jefferson and Marshall8
