Summer ’24 has seen a very strong and prevalent wave of COVID-19 in the Southeast US. This variant is the FLiRT-wave of infections hitting vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, it is clear in our practice we are seeing a lot of exacerbations of sinus infections. COVID-19 often causes sinus and upper respiratory symptoms such as loss […]
Author Archives: Aaron Rogers
14
Jun
Jun
June 14th 2021 Philips Respironics announced a recall of ALL of their CPAP, BIPAP and APAP respiratory devices manufactured in the past several years. The problem had to do with microscopic breakdown of certain components within the air circuit apparatus and respiratory problems that some patients have developed. Fortunately our practice has always used ResMed […]
30
May
May
The numbers may be a little bit dated now, certainly higher in today’s terms. A good article from 2012 broke down some of the occupational expenses of untreated hearing loss. Most notably, the average employee with any degree of untreated hearing loss earned about $11,000 less than their peers. For severe untreated hearing loss this […]
10
May
May
#hipaa Today I am reminded of a significant medical information privacy risk. Nearly all of my ENT colleagues occasionally perform image guided sinus surgery. This requires transferring patient CT scan images over to a hospital computer for use during surgery. The typical way these images are transferred as with an unencrypted CD or DVD drive. […]
03
May
May
A certain kind of vertigo, or a “spinning dizziness”, could be triggered by certain yoga positions. Benign paroxysmal position vertigo (“BPPV“) is a condition of the inner ear where tiny crystals become dislodged and incorrectly stimulate the wrong balance nerves in one ear. This classically causes spells of dizziness lasting 30 seconds or so when […]
22
Apr
Apr
Came across this today –> Recently I was reading a CT scan of the temporal bone (ear and skull) on a a nice older man with pain and pressure in the ears when flying. He has not been diagnosed with an ear infection as an adult, but gets excessive pain and pressure that seems to […]
31
Mar
Mar
This is just a quick video post of eustachian tube anatomy that we are able to capture this week. There is a little bit of blood in the patient’s nasopharynx here from procedure we did at the same setting just before we made the video. This is the patient’s right eustachian tube, we are passing […]
25
Jan
Jan
Wild enough, now “PCR test” or “rtPCR” is almost a household name thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. PCR testing is a highly specific and sensitive way to test for genetic material from all sorts of living things. It is used in forensics, microbiology research and most importantly in healthcare. Not only are we testing nasal […]
14
Jan
Jan
When should I take a second antihistamine? For years, medical protocols have allowed taking more than one antihistamine tablet daily for certain allergy-like conditions. I often see people in my office trying to mix and match various over-the-counter medications to achieve better results. However, what often works just as well, if not better, is simply […]
17
Dec
Dec
With serious illness related to Coronavirus running rampant in the country right now, also running rampant are people with mild symptoms or even no symptoms. Many people are screening positive – maybe testing purely as a result of an exposure or as part of a screening program. What do you do if you screen positive? […]