September News

Professor Rea works on COVID safe working practice with NHS England

Professor Rea has been working with NHS England over the summer and provided guidance to them on safe working practice in the COVID era. This is part of his work as President of The British Society of Otology. The London Road Clinic have carefully implemented all the safety measures and our staff and patients have felt reassured of the strict safety controls and cleaning policies that are now in place.

COVID Guidance on Ear Surgery produced by Professor Rea

Professor Rea has produced guidelines for ear surgeons throughout the UK on how to prioritise operations in the COVID era. If you do end up requiring an operation (and only a very small proportion of our patients do) you can feel reassured if it is deemed urgent these guidelines will allow your prouder to be prioritised appropriately.

Professor Rea and his colleagues at ENT UK were very pleased to receive international praise for the guidelines they developed for safe practice in ENT during COVID. The guidelines he co-wrote have been adopted by countries as diverse as New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Norway and France.

Professor Rea to Lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine

Professor Rea has been invited to lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine in November 2020. This is consider the most prestigious invitation for UK ENT surgeons. His talk will be on “The Dizzy Child.”

Nationwide Audit of Ear Infetions in Children

Professor Rea is launching a nationwide audit of the management of acute mastoiditis (ear infections) in children on November 1st 2020. ENT surgeons from around the UK will be invited to contribute. along with his colleagues he is exploring less invasive ways of treating this serious ear infection and maybe even avoiding surgery. Results are due in late 2021.

British Society of Otology AGM

Professor Rea is pleased to announce the annual general meeting of the British Society of Otology which he will be running as a virtual conference over 2 days from 18-19 March 2021. This is aimed at ENT surgeons and this year he hopes to attract surgeons from around the world. An outstanding faculty of experts is being assembled to speak and a training held day for junior ENT surgeons is also being organised. Doctors can find details on the ENT UK website.

Professor Rea Published Papers and Book Chapters

Professor Rea has had a busy summer publishing research articles and book chapters. Amongst these works are a chapter in the Oxford Textbook of Vertigo on the Surgical Management of Dizziness (very prestigious!), and papers in The international Review of Neurobiology on Stress and The Vestibular System (a huge piece of work led by his colleague Yougan Saman), and a paper in The British Journal of General Practice on Sudden Onset Dizziness and Vertigo Symptoms.

Professor Rea was delighted to have a paper published by the prestigious Journal of Laryngology and Otology in August 2020. With his team at the Leicester Royal Infirmary he had demonstrated a much greater likelihood of patients presenting with epistaxis (nose bleeds) being infected with COVID. 15% of all admissions to the LRI with nose bleeds had coronavirus infection and he believes the nasal inflammation the virus causes may be a trigger for nose bleeds in a minority of patients.

Royal Society of Medicine and British Society of Otology Meeting

In July Professor Rea organised and chaired a meeting between the British Society of Otology and The Royal Society of Medicine analysing outpatient ENT practice in the COVID era.

Balance Webinar

In June Professor Rea undertook a webinar for London based ENT surgeons on recent advances in 3 common balance disorders: BPPV, PPPD, and Meniere’s Disease.

Audiology Webinar

In June Professor Rea gave a Webinar to audiology Professionals through out the UK on how to reopen and manage their practice during COVID. This included updates on planned government changes to guidelines to practice which he was working on.