Stabbing Headache Around Eye or Cheek

Do you suffer from a stabbing headache in the areas denoted in red? Do these headaches seemingly come out of nowhere one day? Perhaps started after a viral upper respiratory infection?You may be suffering from a condition known as contact point headache. This type of headache is also known as:• Sluder's neuralgia• Anterior ethmoid neuralgia• Sphenopalatine ganglion neuralgia• Pterygopalatine ganglion neuralgiaThis type of headache has often been...

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New Treatment for Sore Throat

Well according to American singer-songwriter Suzi Quatro, "I used to get a lot of sore throats and then one of my sisters told me that all illnesses start in the colon. I started taking a daily colon cleanser powder mixed with fresh juice every morning and it made an enormous difference," Quatro told the Daily Mail newspaper. It is unclear how many ounces of juice, what type of juice, and grams of colon cleansing powder was required to obtain this...

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What Makes a Successful Hospital - Where Are the Tweakers???

First off, I don't have a business degree (in fact, I'm a MBA drop-out) nor a degree in hospital administration (does chairing a hospital committee count?), but I do have an opinion (don't we all) in light of having co-founded a bioinformatics company (iCORD, LLC) in the past based on a patent developed during my surgical residency... But I also admit that the company was ultimately unsuccessful if one measures success in terms of monetary profits,...

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Toddlers Unable to Tell If They Mispronounce a Word (Thereby Can't Auto-Correct)

Older children and adults constantly monitor what they say and automatically correct or self-adjust when they hear a peach error... oops, sorry I meant to say "speech" error.Such auditory feedback error correction however is not something we are born with. Rather it seems to be a skill that develops sometime between ages 2 and 4 years according to a new study."Researchers had adults, four-year-olds, and two-year-olds say “bed” repeatedly. But scientists...

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Santa Claus Cigarette Ad Blast From the Past

Given the holidays, take a look at this cigarette ad from the past... Times truly have changed (for the bette...

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Singer George Michael With Tracheostomy

Reuters reported today that singer George Michael suffered from severe pneumonia and underwent a tracheostomy during his hospitalization. A tracheostomy is when a hole is made in the throat for a patient to breath through.Here is a video of what his trach surgery may have looked like.Michael apparently was in the middle of a tour when he became ill requiring him to cancel upcoming shows.A tracheostomy is often performed whenever a patient has been...

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Robotic Surgery for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

I came across this article the other day regarding use of the daVinci robot to perform base of tongue surgery for obstructive sleep apnea.For those who don't know, the daVinci robot system made by Intuitive Surgical is a robotic system whereby the surgeon directs the arms of the robot to perform surgery in difficult-to-access areas of the body.My feeling is that using a robot to perform sleep apnea surgery is way overkill akin to using a $50,000...

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Amoeba Deaths from Neti-Pot Use and How to Minimize Risk

In the past few weeks, there have been numerous stories about the 2nd death in Louisiana from Neti-Pot use leading to an amoeba infection of the brain. The culprit organism Naegleria fowleri causes a life-threatening encephalitis after passing thru the nose and up into the brain where the organism eats neurons for food.As such, recommendations have been issued to use water as instructed with the Neti-Pot packaging... water should be boiled, distilled,...

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Doctor Distraction Happens... It's Mandatory!

I admittedly snorted out loud when I read a New York Times article  earlier last week regarding increased physician distraction due to electronic devices, especially with the advent of the smartphone with its emails, text messages, calls, and other alerts that ping intermittently throughout a typical work day.There is no question that electronic devices distract physicians as the article pointed out... But that's like complaining about...

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Carpenter Shoots Himself in the Neck with Nail Gun

According to Boston News, in early December 2011, a carpenter accidentally discharged a nail gun and embedded a 3.5 inch nail in the bottom of his neck. Based on the CT scan included here, it appears the nail entered the neck dead center given the clear appearance of the windpipe.Based on the location, the anatomic sequence of nail piercing is as follows:Skin --> Thyroid Gland --> Trachea --> Esophagus Back Wall --> Cervical Vertebral...

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NY Yankees Mariano Rivera Undergoes Vocal Cord Surgery

NY Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera may have a fabulous right arm, but his voice was not exactly golden. He apparently had vocal cord polyps that resulted in a progressively raspy voice. Read the NY Post article.On Dec 2, 2011, he underwent surgery to get them removed and if he now sticks to an appropriate voice therapy program, his voice should essentially revert completely back to normal! Watch the video to see what vocal cord surgery looks like....

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How to Make Xylitol Nasal Flush at Home

Given the unusually large reader response to my last blog regarding xylitol nasal rinses regarding the "recipe," I thought it easier to write a blog about it!!!To be brief, xylitol is a naturally-occurring plant-based sugar substitute that apparently has all sorts of anti-bacterial as well as anti-fungal properties. Given these properties, daily xylitol gum chewingor xylitol nasal sprayuse has been shown to help prevent recurrent acute ear...

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Nasal Dripologist

I always thought that pediatricians, primary care physicians, allergists, and ENTs were the true nasal dripologists, but I guess I'm wrong...Saw this ad by Target promoting their pharmacists...

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Xylitol Nasal Flushes Helps Prevent Chronic Sinusitis

Image by Aikhan from German WikipediaOver the years, there has been much about how beneficial a safe food additive called xylitolis in preventing infections. This naturally-occurring plant-based sugar substitute apparently has all sorts of anti-bacterial as well as anti-fungal properties. Given these properties, daily xylitol gum chewingor xylitol nasal sprayuse has been shown to help prevent recurrent acute ear infections and sinus infections......

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For a Physician, When is the Best Time To Tweet or Publish a Blog?

According to professional bloggers and tweeters, timing of content publication is important in order to maximize getting noticed and shared. From a general topics viewpoint (not healthcare specific; data taken from here):4PM Eastern is the best time to TweetFriday is the best day to Tweet9AM Eastern is the best time to Facebook shareSaturday and Sunday are the best days to Facebook shareIn the morning is the best time to blogPublishing a different...

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Natural Remedies for a Sore Throat, Cough, and Viral Infections

Homeopathy and alternative medicine often get a bum rap, but they have come up with some treatments for sore throats and upper respiratory viral illnesses that actually have been proven to work.Here's a few...1) HoneySore throats (and coughing) can be soothed by swallowing honey straight-up or slightly diluted with warm water with honey to make it easier to swallow. The best time to do this is at bedtime given it will stick around for awhile (eating/drinking...

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New Webpage on Cochlear Hydrops

Sense of ear fullness or clogging is one of the most common reasons to see an ENT. Common causes of such a symptom include eustachian tube dysfunction, sudden sensorineural hearing loss, or fluid in the middle ear. However, cochlear hydrops is another potential, but rare cause for ear fullness.Other symptoms that a patient with cochlear hydrops may exhibit include:roaring sound in the earfluctuating hearing lossnoise sensitivityspeech/sound distortionA...

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Dr. Chang a Castle Connolly Top Doctor in America

In November 2011, Dr. Christopher Chang was added to Castle Connolly's list of Top Doctors in America. Apparently, he is the only Top Doctor in the field of otolaryngology within a 30 mile radius.It's no surprise given patients travel from as far away as California and even the Philippines to be treated by Dr. Chang.You can check out his listing here or on US News and World Report of Top Docto...

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Healthcare Blogging a Losing Proposition?

An interesting blog article from the folks at Compete came to my attention recently. Compete for those who don't know is a fantastic analytics site to see how ANY website is doing in terms of popularity (number of visitors in a given time period). The basic data is free. For more in depth information, there's a charge.For example, for our practice's website, here is the Compete data I pulled which is "relatively" accurate based on my own analytics...

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The Doctors TV Show Does Adenoidectomy

Dr. Nina Shapiro was the featured otolaryngologist when The Doctors television show discussed nasal congestion as well as large adenoids. A sanitized view of adenoid removal surgery was also shown.For a more detailed view of the surgery, click here.For more info on adenoids and its surgical removal, click he...

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Portable CT Scanner

Portable X-ray machines are commonplace... but a portable CT scanner?!!I saw this article by MedGadget about a portable CT scanner introduced earlier this year that can be wheeled around in the hospital made by NeuroLogica.When looking up more details, the company makes not just one portable CT scanner, but FOUR different portable machines:• BodyTom: Portable whole-body CT Scanner• CereTom: Portable CT Head scanner• OTOscan: Portable CT Sinus...

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Dr. House of TV Fame Would Never Survive in Real World

Would YOU as the patient see a doctor who is a well-known jerk, abuses drugs, gives the wrong diagnosis more often than not, and is known to like ordering very invasive tests??? Be honest...The other week, a patient with a chronic cough exclaimed to me that she wished the fictional character Dr. House of TV fame actually existed in real life, because he was somebody who can diagnose anything.I looked her straight in the eye and told her that somebody...

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In-Office Sinus Surgery Without General Anesthesia

There has been tremendous advances in sinus surgery over the past decade. From the elimination of nasal packing after most routine sinus surgery to the more recent use of balloons to open the sinus cavities, patient comfort has improved greatly after this particular operation. What used to be a several week recovery may now only be a few days.Balloon sinuplasty in particular has been revolutionary in the surgical treatment of chronic sinusitis. Though...

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Human Ear Contains a Built-In "Ear Plug"

According to one Australian researcher, by just chewing a gum or singing/talking loudly, one could be protecting your ears from noise-induced hearing damage. How???It is not common knowledge that the human ear contains two muscles that attach to the middle ear bones called the stapedius and tensor tympani muscles.The middle ear bones, composed of the malleus, incus, and stapes, are what transmits sounds from the eardrum to the cochlea which allows...

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