Summer News

Professor Rea becomes President of the Royal Society of Medicine

Professor Rea becomes President of the Royal Society of Medicine, section of otology, later this year. It is one of the greatest honours an ENT surgeon can be given in the UK and his fellow surgeons voted him in to the post.

He has a full programme of talks spread over the year and is working with his friend and colleague Professor Claire Hopkins from London. Together they will run run full day meetings at The Royal Society of Medicine in Wimpole Street in London.

The subjects of each day are: President`s day in November 2023 (which will concentrate on endoscopic sinus surgery and how the brain works in dizziness), Medico-Legal Practice and Complications in Surgery in December 2023 (and how to prevent them happening), ENT Emergencies in February 2024, Innovation in ENT in March 2024 (including a “Dragons Den” with entrepreneurs offering to help fund new ideas in surgery), and Improving Function in ENT in May 2024 (which includes some very famous speakers we all know!). He will also travel around the UK with one of his overseas speakers, taking his teaching around the country.

Professor Rea on the World Service

Professor Rea was approached by the BBC In June 2023 to participate in a documentary for the BBC World Service on the subject of vertigo. Is there an evolutionary advantage to it? Certainly a fascinating question. The on line interview was so interesting the producer and presenter will both be coming up to meet him in person in Leicester later in the month and he will put them through their paces on some of his equipment whilst they have their microphones on. We will let you know comes of this and should a fascinating documentary to listen to!

Professor Rea had a second interview with the BBC World Service in June 2023. The BBC’s producer and presenter both came up to Leicester and underwent some of the specialist tests he is able to offer. It was a fascinating day, helped very much by the enthusiasm of the journalists, but even more so by his team using their expertise to explain the tests so well, and Rupal (of Life on the Level fame and a BBC journalist herself) describing her battle with dizziness in such a profound and heartfelt way.

You can listen to the broadcast on the 7th July 2023 on BBC world service radio - look up Crowd Science. It will also be available as a podcast. Whilst Professor Rea has no part in editing the show he is sure the BBC team will produce a show that is both educational (describing the mechanisms of dizziness) and emotional (highlighting the impact of balance conditions on one’s life). Weare all looking forward to listening to it.Please note there may also be other experts speaking that we are not linked to.

Indian Vertigo Conference

In June 2023 Professor Rea spoke as the International Guest Speaker at the Indian Vertigo Conference. He was beamed to over 20 large banquet halls spread throughout cities in India where ENT and balance experts had gathered to listen to his talk. He very much enjoyed taking part.

Life on the Level Patient Support Group

On 17 June 2023 Professor Rea described the mechanisms of many balance disorders to The Life on The Level patient support group. You can listen to his lecture on You Tube if you Google Life on the Level. It was very much an educational talk and should be of great interest to anyone suffering dizziness or a balance disorder. Life on the Level will post this on You Tube and their website shortly (it is not displayed as of 23 June).

Professor Rea spoke to the Life on the Level organisation in June 2023. He gave a more medical talk than usual explaining how he thinks when seeing his patients balance problems. This fabulous organisation is run by and for patients with dizziness and balance problems. It allows patients to speak to others with similar problems and share their experiences. And to listen to lectures by experts in the field. You can see previous talks on YouTube. If this is something that may be of interest to you please do Google the name. It is free, independent, and run by those with dizziness and balance disorders and many of Professor Rea’s patients participate. You will be amongst friends.Professor Rea is also hoping some of those at the meeting might have their stories added to the BBC documentary he is contributing to next week.

New Research Project - CAVA

In June 2023 Professor Rea has gone live with a new research project developing a state of the art body warn device to diagnose balance disorders. The device is called the CAVA and has been funded by a large government grant (from the prestigious NIHR). He has no financial interests in the product but is a co-applicant on the grant and has agreed to help develop this device.

To start with he will be recruiting patients with Meniere`s Disease, Vestibular migraine, or BPPV. To be eligible your disease will need to be active (that is you will need to be experiencing attacks of vertigo from it) and should have only one of these balance disorders.

Professor Rea is only able to accept patients that he has assessed and diagnosed himself either privately or on the NHS, as the grant does not allow for clinical assessment, only for the testing of the device. It will mean wearing a head warn device continuously for one month.

If you would like to be part of something exciting that may help many sufferers in the future, please do drop the London Road Clinic a message and he will get back in touch with you. A big thank you from Professor for your interest.

Results of the Meniere’s Registry Study

Professor Rea is very pleased to be able to share the early results of the Meniere’s Registry study which many of his patients at The London Road Clinic so kindly contributed to. This huge data base of symptoms from 411 patients with Meniere’s Disease from 4 major centres in the UK (The others being Guy’s Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, and Norwich Hospital) will be used to produce a large number of scientific papers.

The two standout initial findings are that 20% of patients with Meniere’s are likely to eventually experience it in both ears. This is important when planning treatment. And the most common illness it is associated with is the skin condition psoriasis. This may seem strange but it furthers our view that Meniere’s is likely to have an autoimmune component (where the body attacks itself) at least in some patients. And in turn are likely to be sensitive to the steroid injection Professor Rea often gives his patients ears.

For more information on this treatment you are welcome to read the paper he worked on and if you Google “Meniere’s Lancet 2016 Rea Bronstein” you can read it free of charge as the team have paid for it to be available on open access. It is worth the effort. The bottom line is that steroid or gentamicin injections in to the ear produced a 90% reduction in vertigo attacks in the trial patients.