Oroantral fistula from bisphosphonate induced osteonecrosis of the jaw.

Bisphosphonates like alendronic acid, disodium etidronate, and risedronate are effective for preventing postmenopausal and corticosteroid induced osteoporosis. They are also useful in the treatment of Paget's disease, hypercalcaemia of malignancy and in bony metastases. However osteonecrosis of the jaw has been reported following intravenous bisphosphonate use and rarely in those taking them orally. Increasingly, oroantral fistulae have been shown to occur as sequelae of bisphosphonate-induced osteonecrosis of the jaw and this case report highlights a patient that presented to our ENT department and required sinus surgery in collaboration with maxillofacial surgeons. This case report aims to raise awareness among ENT surgeons to these patients on bisphosphonates that could present to them with sinus disease from oroantral fistulae. There is an on-going audit in the maxillofacial community on this emerging trend.

Assessing outcome in aesthetic rhinoplasty.

In the measurement of outcome, rhinoplasty surgery suffers from the lack of easily calculable data such as recurrence rates or survival figures, which are inherent in other branches of the speciality and surgical practice in general. We have reviewed methods utilized for the assessment of outcome following aesthetic rhinoplasty, and have developed an instrument by which a pre- and postoperative assessment of nasal and facial appearance can be made from standard frontal, lateral, basal and oblique photographs, the Rhinoplasty Assessment Scale (Photographic) (RASP). It is our intention that this will act as a template for methodical and standardized photographic assessment of the nose prior to rhinoplasty. This will highlight the changes required and provide a quantitative measure of nasal aesthetics, which will be complimentary to existing measures of subjective patient benefit.