Santanu Banerjee

Concept of foreign body-its past and present

Believe it or not, once upon a time, to remove a foreign body from the ear canal, the clinicians used to introduce the severed head of a living lizard which was still then gasping for breath. It was hoped that, the opening and closing jaw movements of the gasping lizard would at one time grasp the Foreign Body. Afterwards the removal of the lizard’s head would also lead to the removal of the Foreign Body.Today the safe and simple removal is not considered as the ultimate treatment of Foreign body. Amongst the victims of self introduced Foreign bodies, are mostly children. Specially those who do it repeatedly and on others, are thought to be mentally retarded or frustrated. Such children should be subjected to Psychoanalysis and if the said study confirms one to be so, he should be given appropriate treatment. This will help him to grow normally by alleviating his various other behavioural disorders. In addition, it will stop his tendeny to do it again and save him suffering from problems of other mental disorders which can crop up in his future life if left untreated.

Hundred years of laryngology

, , • ndirect laryngoscopy was done successfully for the first time in 1885. But even at the end of the twentieth century many of us do not know how the foundations of Laryngology were laid during the years after the introduction of mirror laryngoscopy. Initially the patterns of laryngeal diseases and prevalence were different. Infectious diseases were frequent and life threatening. For any research work leading to alleviation of diphtheria, the then commonest cause of croup, Napoleon offered a large prize. Amongst the chronic infection, Tuberculosis and Typhus were the commonest affections of larynx. Because the life span was then shorter in comparison to modern days, malignant diseases were of less importance.

Looking for paediatric ENT care.

I am happy to publish this special paediatric ENT issue for the second time within my tenure of editorship. It is difficult to publish such issue as not many contribute articles about paediatric ENT problems and not many of us, rather only a few, amongst us in India do specific paed. ENT practice which, I feel, should essentially be done by many. Because children constitute 32/% percent of the total global population and of them about 20% children suffer from various illness. This figure may only be minimised if more and more of ENT specialist specialise and render their services specifically for children.

Original article: Study of congenital anomalies of pinna and the ecological influence on it's development.

Pinna is present in mammals only and not found in any other living species. Various congenital anomalies of Human pinna often mimic the appearance of normal pinna of many mammals of lower order. Ecology has been observed to play a role in the development of pinna. Anomalous pinna though frustrating for both patients and clinicians, are mostly amenable to treatment.