Purpose of review

To review and discuss recent literature regarding the use of antibiotics in relation to endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS), including perioperative antibiotics, postoperative antibiotics, and antibiotic usage in the setting of postoperative packing.

Recent findings

Perioperative antibiotics are not recommended by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. The necessity of antibiotics following ESS is a heavily debated topic. Most studies show little to no improvement in outcomes. Significant improvement in quality-of-life outcomes and endoscopic scoring appears limited to the early postoperative period using conventional postoperative antibiotics. Prolonged macrolide therapy may improve long-term outcomes. There is no convincing evidence to show the need for antibiotics in the setting of postoperative packing.

Summary

The available evidence regarding antibiotic use in relation to ESS overall fails to demonstrate routine benefit; however, the studies have various limitations. Overall, future, well designed, large-scale prospective studies would be beneficial to direct appropriate antibiotic use, whether systemic or topical, in relation to ESS.

Diagnosis and treatment of vocal fold lesions has been a long-evolving science for the otolaryngologist. Contemporary practice requires biopsy of a glottal lesion in the operating room under general anesthesia for diagnosis. Current in-office technology is limited to visualizing the surface of the vocal folds with fiber-optic or rigid endoscopy and using stroboscopic or high-speed video to infer information about submucosal processes. Previous efforts using optical coherence tomography (OCT) have been limited by small working distances and imaging ranges. Here we report the first full field, high-speed, and long-range OCT images of awake patients' vocal folds as well as cross-sectional video and Doppler analysis of their vocal fold motions during phonation. These vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser source (VCSEL) OCT images offer depth resolved, high-resolution, high-speed, and panoramic images of both the true and false vocal folds. This technology has the potential to revolutionize in-office imaging of the larynx.