Most common pathologies?

[drivesmecraazee]

What are the most frequent pathologies treated and operated by ENT's, I just want to know about the field's bread and buter.

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[TheThroat]

What are the most frequent pathologies treated and operated by ENT's, I just want to know about the field's bread and buter.

Ears: hearing loss, eustachian tube dysfunction, tinnitus, vertigo

Nose: allergic rhinitis, sinusitis

Throat: chronic tonsillitis, OSA, extra esophageal reflux, hoarseness, dysphagia.

Everything else: thyroid nodules, parotid/neck bumps, cancer.

 

[drivesmecraazee]

Thanks

 

[drivesmecraazee]

Which pathology do you consider to be the most serious/hard to treat?

 

[UKORLResident]

Serious and hard are subjective. All subspecialities can be challenging. I suppose Head & Neck cancer can be considered serious as its life threatening.

 

[drivesmecraazee]

In case of cancer the ENT can perform surgey or only the onc surgeon can?

 

[resxn]

ENT is the "onc surgeon" for head and neck cancer. Some ENT's go on to do a fellowship specifically for head and neck surgery (essentially surgical oncology) but it certainly isn't required to be very good at taking care of this patient population.

Recently, the problem is fewer and fewer people doing this type of surgery because of the decreasing reimbursement. If the trend doesn't change, I can foresee a time when this will be exclusively the domain of the academic centers.

 

[drivesmecraazee]

Im getting very interested in ENT and could be a great choice for a speciality, I just hope there is still room for Head and Neck.

 

[resxn]

Best specialty in medicine, bar none.

 

[drivesmecraazee]

Which was your plan B residency? Im sure that right now you couldn't do anything else for a living but when you had to choose a speciality there was a plan B, or another speciality that you liked at the time, obviously one leans toward something at the end.

 

[blz]

do oto's deal with trauma cases in the hospital? is there ever a scenario where ENT needs to be called in to save a life emergently?

 

[drivesmecraazee]

do oto's deal with trauma cases in the hospital? is there ever a scenario where ENT needs to be called in to save a life emergently?

good question...i would like to knoe this too

 

[otopico]

off the top of my head, airway emergencies (can't ventilate/can't intubate scenarios) and massive epistaxis come to mind...

 

[earboy]

do oto's deal with trauma cases in the hospital? is there ever a scenario where ENT needs to be called in to save a life emergently?

yes, at pretty much any academic center, face trauma call is shared by oto/plastics and OMFS (if it's there). this is soft tissue and bone trauma. once out of residency, trauma is something that most oto's avoid. but some still want to do it and have the requisite skills.

ENT carries the airway pager in the hospital. We are the masters of the airway. When s*^t hits the fan, we get called to try the difficult intubation and, if that fails, perform the surgical airway.

And, yes, you can die from massive epistaxis....so we get called urgently/emergently for that.

 

[TheThroat]

off the top of my head, airway emergencies (can't ventilate/can't intubate scenarios) and massive epistaxis come to mind...

Funny you should mention those:

Friday AM: called in for epistaxis. One of the worst I have ever seen. Got it to stop....finally.

Today: called in for a possible epiglottitis. False alarm, luckily.

 

[drivesmecraazee]

Funny you should mention those:

Friday AM: called in for epistaxis. One of the worst I have ever seen. Got it to stop....finally.

Today: called in for a possible epiglottitis. False alarm, luckily.

How did the epistaxis happened? Bar fight? Playing sports?

 

[resxn]

do oto's deal with trauma cases in the hospital? is there ever a scenario where ENT needs to be called in to save a life emergently?

Depends on the call arrangements. At some Academic institutions the otologist only takes ear call--but is on call more frequently--and do not take general ENT call so they avoid these life threatening conditions. However, one condition that is life threatening in otology is malignant otitis externa. Only seen 1 case, though. In many institutions the otologist does take general ENT call.

In private practice, depends on the situations. If solo, probably don't take general ENT call. If in a group with general ENT's, usually will take general ENT call. If in a group of just otologists, probably don't take general ENT call.

 

[TheThroat]

How did the epistaxis happened? Bar fight? Playing sports?

Nope, just a good ol' idiopathic epistaxis.