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March 31, 2011

March 22, 2011

ASHA Recognizes Dr. Chang for His Educational Videos

ASHA , the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, recently recognized the contributions that Dr. Chang has provided in  ENT videos he has created for educational purposes. In their recent newsletter on October 12, 2010, an article written by Judith Maginnis Kuster, MS, CCC-SLP, wrote an article titled "Videos on the Web". On page 24, she wrote: Check out the videos she is talking about here .
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March 21, 2011

Dr. Chang Publishes New Journal Article "Video Recording the Surgeon's Viewpoint Cheaply"

An avid snowboarder, I purchased one of those helmet-mounted video camcorders in order record my athletic feats over a year ago. The one I purchased was called ContourHD  and it can be mounted on the snowboard helmet and set to record by the press of a button. It was at some point boarding down a black diamond trail that I had an epiphany... Why not use this helmet mountable camcorder in order to record surgical procedures in the operating room? And... So I did with a few modifications …
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March 20, 2011

Home Allergy Shots

DISCLAIMER: This post is not meant to condone or promote allergy shots to be given at home. It is meant to promote discussion and make patients aware of the issues involved. Allergy shots , unlike medications like claritin and flonase , offer patients with significant allergies a way to potentially be cured of their misery without the need for daily medication use. However, there is a small, but substantial risk for anaphylaxis and even death with allergy shot administration. After all, a…
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March 14, 2011

Tonsillectomy WITHOUT Anesthesia in a Child [GRAPHIC]

WARNING!!!  This video contains a VERY   GRAPHIC video of a child having his tonsils removed without anesthesia or sedation. This video is EXTREMELY disturbing. DO NOT watch it if you are easily shocked, offended, or have a weak stomach. A colleague forwarded this video to me and though I regularly perform tonsillectomy, I myself felt quite disturbed by it. Many readers have also informed me that the video is actually an adenoidectomy rather than tonsillectomy, but hard to say which …
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March 12, 2011

Auditory Neuropathy

CNN published an article March 10, 2011 on a hearing problem called auditory neuropathy. At its essence, auditory neuropathy is when the inner ear is working fine, but the nerve going from the inner ear to the brain is impaired. The hallmark of auditory neuropathy is a negligible or very abnormal ABR (auditory brainstem response) reading together with a normal OAE (otoacoustic emission) reading. A normal OAE reading is a sign that the outer hair cells are working normally. Therein lies …
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March 09, 2011

March 08, 2011

Reporter Suffers Garbled Speech on Live TV

Many folks are already aware of a Los Angeles reporter, Serene Branson, who was covering on live TV the Grammy's when she suffered symptoms of garbled speech (dysarthria being the medical term). It was initially conjectured that she was in the middle of a stroke, TIA, seizure, or something else bad... but it finally was determined by her doctors that it was due to a migraine. This scary incident brings me to explain what a speech and what a vocal problem is. First some definitions. …
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March 06, 2011

Rapid Strep Test Positive But No Sore Throat

Occasionally, I see patients who have received throat swabs for strep that have come back positive... even if they have no signs or symptoms of pharyngitis . In this situation, there are 2 main actions a physician may take (I am biased towards one): 1) Prescribe antibiotics until throat cultures are normal 2) Do nothing Personally, if a patient is without throat symptoms and has no history of rheumatic fever or kidney damage, I would not have even bothered obtaining a strep test . Wha…
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March 05, 2011

Get a Nosejob Without Surgery!

Well, only in Japan at least. Courtesy of Dr. Houtan Chaboki , I came across one of his posts showing this advertisement of a device that can mold your nose to the perfect shape (ie, rhinoplasty or nosejob)... all without cutting or any plastic surgery. Before you go running off to buy one... I have been assured it doesn't really work. However, before pooh-pooing molding as a scam, it IS an acceptable form of changing the shape of human features... such as the skull (craniosynostosis…
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March 01, 2011

Natalie Portman, Scientific Genius in REAL Life!

The New York Times published a great article about the serious scientific credentials of some of hollywood's most celebrated stars, Natalie Portman among them. As a student at Syosset High School on Long Island back in the late 1990s, Ms. Portman made it all the way to the semifinal rounds of the Intel Science Talent Search competition. Her project was a new “environmentally friendly” method of converting waste into useful forms of energy. She also went to Harvard University and studi…
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Olympic Athlete Hopeful With Vocal Cord Dysfunction

There was a recent article about Hannah Lupton, a heptathlete, who suffers from vocal cord dysfunction . This disorder is basically when the vocal cords come together during inhalation when it should be apart resulting in shortness of breath localized to the throat area. Normally, during breathing, the vocal cords are apart as shown in the picture. When talking or swallowing, the vocal cords come together (TVC is True Vocal Cord). Laryngospasm , which is the most severe form of vocal co…
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