ENT

Infection of the middle ear that follows failure of the Eustachian tube to ventilate and drain it, so the same self-limiting process that causes glue ear can also cause a painful, bulging, infected drum.

Inflammation of the nasal mucosa and paranasal sinuses that follows blockage of their narrow drainage pathways, almost always viral and self-limiting, with antibiotics reserved for the minority who develop true bacterial superinfection or complications.

Brief, intense vertigo triggered by head movement, caused by displaced otoconia moving freely within a semicircular canal and inappropriately signalling rotation that is not actually happening.

Bleeding from the nasal mucosa, most often from the densely vascular anterior septum, where management escalates in a stepwise fashion from simple first aid to cautery, packing and, rarely, surgery according to where the bleeding source sits and how well it is controlled.

Inflammation of the skin lining the ear canal, usually triggered by moisture or trauma disrupting its protective acid mantle, treated topically because the problem is a superficial skin infection rather than a deep-seated one.

A collection of pus between the tonsil capsule and the pharyngeal muscles (quinsy), forming when tonsillitis spreads beyond the tonsil into an adjacent tissue plane, producing trismus and a muffled voice that mark it out as a surgical emergency rather than severe tonsillitis.

Inflammation of the palatine tonsils, usually viral but sometimes bacterial (chiefly group A Streptococcus), where clinical scoring rather than routine testing decides who actually benefits from an antibiotic.