Introduction: The association of hearing loss and diabetes has been under research for many years. The hearing loss in diabetes in our population has not been studied extensively. The objective of this study was to compare the hearing threshold between type 2 diabetic patients and age- and sexmatched controls. Materials and Methods: A comparative study was done in the Department of ENT, Kathmandu Medical College from October 2019 to February 2020. The hearing threshold, of 40 type 2 diabetics patients, and 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls in the age group of 35 to 55 years, were assessed by pure tone audiometry. The hearing threshold was compared between the two groups by using the student’s unpaired t-test. Results: Among 40 diabetes patients, 29 (72.5 %) had bilateral, mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss. The hearing threshold in diabetes patients was signifi cantly higher than the healthy controls in all the frequencies except at 250 Hz. When comparing the threshold according to the duration of diabetes, it was found to be signifi cantly higher only at higher frequencies (4000 and 8000 Hz) in diabetes with more than 5 years duration. Conclusions: The hearing loss was common in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Most diabetic patients had mostly bilateral mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss affecting hearing thresholds in higher frequencies than the healthy controls as assessed by pure tone audiometry.

Background: Identifi cation of recurrent laryngeal nerve is of utmost importance during thyroid surgery. Different anatomical landmarks have been used to recognize and preserve the nerve. Injury may lead to vocal cord paralysis. Different adjuvant methods have been used to aid in the identifi cation of the nerve. Objective: To determine whether methylene blue smear helps to identify the recurrent laryngeal nerve safely and effi ciently. Methodology: Observational cross sectional study done in 30 patients who underwent different thyroidectomies within a duration of one year. Recurrent laryngeal nerve identifi ed using methylene blue smear and compared with the conventional visualization techniques exercising different known anatomical landmarks. The duration and ease of identifi cation of the nerve was noted and graded. Results: Total of 39 recurrent laryngeal nerves were identifi ed from 28 females and two males. The duration and the ease of dissection of the nerve was inconstant. Earliest time for recognition of the nerve was one and half minutes while the slowest time was 12 minutes.

Introduction: Poor access to the difficult areas in the middle ear and mastoid cavity is considered as the major reason for failure in mastoid surgery. Wide field visibility, visualization of nooks and corners by an endoscope could contribute to better clinical control of the disease in these patients that cannot be accessed by the operating microscope.  Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study, done in Kathmandu Medical College from January to June 2017. Thirty two patients were included in the study. Data collection was done by convenient sampling. Statistical analysis was done by Chi square test and Fisher Exact test, P value of <0.005 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study revealed that exposure benefit with an endoscope in canal wall down mastoid surgery was significantly better than with a microscope (P value of 0.034). The level of complete clearance and level of difficulty in cleaning with the help of a microscope compared to endoscope did not show a significant difference with P value of 0.288 and 0.652 obtained by Fisher extract test respectively. After microscopic removal of materials from the mastoid cavity, 22 (68.8%) which is more than half of cases had remaining materials in the cavity which was removed by endoscope completely. Conclusions: Outcome will make the ENT surgeons aware of use of endoscopy in post mastoid follow up cases to give better results and make the surgeon much more successful in his/her endeavor to eradicate the disease.