Primary Care Otolaryngology Online

Chapter 3: Postoperative Fevers
 Management of patients in the postoperative phase involves rehabilitation of the particular organ system that has been operated on. It also involves monitoring and care for those complications that can occur in any patient who has undergone a surgical procedure. Fever is one of the most commonly encountered problems in the postoperative period. This chapter helps define a treatment paradigm for that problem.
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Chapter 4: ENT Emergencies
The otolaryngology system is rife with acute disease processes that require urgent treatment. In fact, physicians commonly encounter conditions such as epistaxis in their practice. This chapter describes the common otolaryngology emergencies and develops a treatment paradigm for the trainee physician.
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Chapter 5: Otitis Media
One of the most common reasons patients visit their physicians’ offices is otitis media. The ability to recognize it on examination, as well as diagnose and discuss its different etiologies, is paramount to becoming a good physician. The different treatment options are to be discussed in this chapter.
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Chapter 6: Hearing Loss
With an increase in the aging population, hearing loss is becoming a more prevalent problem. An understanding of the etiology of sensorineural as well as conductive hearing loss and current management practices is essential to the knowledge base of any student of medicine.
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Chapter 7: Dizziness
One of the most challenging problems that can face a physician is a patient who presents a chief complaint of dizziness. An understanding of the different etiologies of dizziness, as well as a standard approach to the history and physical examination, will allow for the generation of a differential diagnosis with relative ease.
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Chapter 8: Facial Nerve Paralysis
The face and the ability to move it are of paramount importance in conveying emotional context and being able to communicate on an everyday basis. Patients with facial paralysis have a unique presentation as well as unique therapeutic requirements. This chapter helps the young medical student address the challenges of a patient presenting with facial nerve paralysis.
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Chapter 9: Rhinology, Nasal Obstruction and Sinusitis
Some of the most common complaints that patients have and present to their primary practitioners are nasal obstruction, rhinorrhea, and stuffiness. Management of patients with these chronic or acute nasal symptoms has changed remarkably in the last decade. Newer antibiotics as well as diagnostic modalities have allowed for both medical and surgical interventions that facilitate resolution of the symptoms and offer treatment paradigms to what were previously chronically ill patients with no hope.
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Chapter 10: How to Read a Sinus CT Scan
The advent of newer CT scanning techniques as well as the widespread availability of this diagnostic modality has made it a key component in the evaluation of patients with paranasal sinus disease. The ability to interpret these diagnostic tests and thus influence patient treatment and outcomes is demonstrated in this chapter.
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Chapter 11: Maxillofacial Trauma
Fortunately, seat belts and air bags have reduced the incidence of maxillofacial trauma. Unfortunately, human-to-human trauma as well as some motor vehicle accidents means that the family practitioner or emergency room physician will continue to see maxillofacial trauma. As with any trauma, protocols are required for acute management. Because of the complex structures in the craniofacial skeleton, specialized care must be taken in the evaluation and treatment of these patients.
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Chapter 12: Facial Plastic Surgery
The face plays such an important role in our ability to interact with other individuals that any defect, whether it be traumatic, caused by disease, or just the natural aging process, is immediately perceptible to all individuals. More and more people are seeking to reverse or alleviate many of the signs of aging on the facial skeleton. Techniques learned through soft tissue reconstruction from trauma or disease have allowed the facial plastic surgeon to offer improvements in many of these processes to patients needing or requesting facial plastic surgery.
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Chapter 13: Salivary Gland Disease
The salivary glands are often overlooked as a functional problem in head and neck diseases. While the incidence of salivary gland tumors is low, the problems caused by decreased production of saliva are myriad. This chapter discusses the benign, malignant, and functional defects one encounters in salivary glands.
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Chapter 14: Thyroid Cancer Thyroid
Cancer often presents as a painless incidental lump found on physical examination. This explains why primary care physicians detect the majority of thyroid tumors. With the introduction of fine-needle aspiration biopsy, the diagnostic algorithm as well as workup of thyroid tumors has changed remarkably in the last 10 years. This chapter gives the medical student a solid background in the diagnosis and management of patients with thyroid cancer.
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Chapter 15: Head and Neck Cancer
Cancers of the head and neck region, other than skin, are among the most common cancers to arise in the human body. Their predilection to affect the important structures of the upper aerodigestive tract means that they present with symptoms that are extremely debilitating to patients. Many of these tumors can be found at an early stage if the right amount of clinical suspicion is focused. Once detected, treatment algorithms have been developed that allow for the best treatment with minimal impact on patients’ quality of life. This chapter defines the common symptoms that patients with head and neck cancer present with as well as investigation and treatment algorithms.
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Chapter 16: Skin Cancer
The skin of the head and neck, including the scalp, is one of the most common sites for skin cancer. Chronic exposure to sun and the extremes of the weather is only one of the reasons. As individuals age, they develop a multitude of cutaneous changes. Being able to differentiate the benign from the malignant changes that one encounters in an aging patient population is of the utmost importance. The increasing incidence of melanoma makes the ability to discuss and differentiate benign freckles from melanotic disease extremely important to the practitioner. Management paradigms for these diseases are also important.
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Chapter 17: Pediatric Otolaryngology
One must remember that the pediatric population is different from the adult population, especially so in otolaryngology. Many of the diseases that present in the pediatric population do not present in the adult, and vice versa. An understanding of the different types of diseases that can present in children and their investigation and management is fundamental to being a good physician. This chapter discusses some of the most common disease processes seen in children and differentiates them from the disease processes seen in adults.
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Chapter 18: Allergy
Allergies, although rarely life threatening, affect the quality of life of millions of Americans.  This chapter will discuss the environmental and congenital causes of allergies, allergy testing, and treatments including pharmacotherapy and immunotherapy.
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The online edition of Primary Care Otolaryngology was made possible through an educational grant from: Daiichi Pharmaceutical Corporation