Today's regulatory sweep found no new drug approval or safety communication relevant to ENT. That is the expected pattern for this desk: what changes ENT practice is society standards, appropriateness criteria and procedural consensus, published as journal documents that drug-regulator feeds never see.
The substantive publication is a European practice consensus on office-based laryngology, developed by 25 laryngologists from the British Laryngological Association, the European Laryngological Society and the Union of European Phoniatricians through a modified Delphi process. Sixty statements were approved across two voting rounds, with consensus requiring 80% agreement and GRADE used for assessment. They cover preprocedural considerations, indications and contraindications, technical considerations, vocal fold augmentation, postprocedural care and success criteria, and environmental and economic outcomes.
Primary indications reached consensus for polyps, Reinke's oedema, varices, leukoplakia, biopsies, granulomas, recurrent respiratory papillomatosis and selected vocal fold augmentation. The value of the document is that office-based procedures have spread faster than agreement on when they are appropriate, and a patient having an awake procedure that should have been done under general anaesthesia is a specific and avoidable harm. Note the level of evidence is stated as not applicable — this is structured expert agreement, not trial data.
- No ENT drug or device regulatory action in today's sweep
- 60 consensus statements from 25 European laryngologists
- Indications include polyps, Reinke's oedema, leukoplakia, papillomatosis, biopsy
- Level of evidence stated as not applicable — expert consensus, not trial data
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