Turkish Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery: a resource guide for colleagues

Key points

• The society's website hosts national guideline documents on otitis, tonsillopharyngitis and rhinosinusitis, consent forms and patient information leaflets.
• Turkish Archives of Otorhinolaryngology is the society's peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal, published in English.
• Training standards, accreditation and the board examination are run by the ENT and Head and Neck Surgery Board (Yeterlik Kurulu).
• Turkish cancer statistics are published as annual reports on the page of the Cancer Department of the Ministry of Health's General Directorate of Public Health.

The society and its structure

On its website, the Turkish Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery defines its aims as developing education, research, preventive medicine and patient care in the specialty, improving members' professional standing and rights, and influencing health policy in the public interest as a professional body. Its committees include the executive, audit, advisory, honour and ethics boards and the board examination executive committee.

The site also announces events of regional and subspecialty societies, a meeting calendar and news, making it a practical starting point for following regional scientific meetings.

Guidelines and clinical documents

• The guidelines section contains an otitis guideline, a tonsillopharyngitis guideline, a rhinosinusitis diagnosis and treatment guide and a swallowing anxiety scale; publication dates should be checked before use.
• Consent forms and patient information leaflets can be used alongside institutional documents for informed consent and patient education.
• The ENT and Head and Neck Surgery training books, the society's ethics book, the specialty training logbook and the programmes and abstract books of past congresses are also available on the site.

The society journal

Turkish Archives of Otorhinolaryngology (Turk Arch Otorhinolaryngol) is, in its publisher's words, the scientific, peer-reviewed, open-access journal of the society. It is published in English with four issues a year, its website gives November 1962 as its founding date, and it is indexed in PubMed Central and PubMed. The "Journals" page on the society's site also links to other national ENT journals.

Education, board certification and congress

• The ENT and Head and Neck Surgery Board runs the core specialty training programme, clinic accreditation, the board examination and recertification through its education, accreditation and examination commissions; the list of accredited clinics and the resident logbook are on the board's website.
• The society offers "ENT Schools" in areas such as head and neck and thyroid surgery, laryngology and phoniatrics, otology and neurotology, and rhinology, allergy and sleep, as well as a residents' school, an exchange programme, grants, project support and awards.
• The Turkish National Congress of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, organised by committees appointed by the society, is its largest national meeting; the 46th congress was held on 5–9 November 2025 in Bafra, Northern Cyprus.

Using international guidelines alongside national practice

AAO-HNSF (US), NICE (England), EPOS (the European position paper on rhinosinusitis and nasal polyps; e.g. EPOS 2020) and NCCN (US, head and neck cancers) are evidence sources frequently used in Turkey as well. Each, however, is written for its own health system, drug licensing and reimbursement and access to resources.

• First check the document's publication and update dates, target population and strength of recommendation; guidelines on the same topic may disagree.
• Compare drug and device recommendations with licensing and social security reimbursement in Turkey, and diagnostic recommendations with local access to PET-CT, polysomnography or sentinel lymph node biopsy.
• Where a society guideline exists, read the national document together with the international guideline; make oncological decisions in a multidisciplinary tumour board.
• When conveying a guideline recommendation to the patient, follow the principle of shared decision-making; when departing from a recommendation, record the reason in the patient's notes.

Finding Turkish cancer statistics

The Cancer Department of the Ministry of Health's General Directorate of Public Health publishes annual "Turkey Cancer Statistics" reports as PDFs on its "Cancer Statistics" page; as of November 2026, the most recent report listed covers 2022. The department also has a Cancer Registry and Epidemiology Unit. Before comparing head and neck subsite data with international figures, check the report's site groupings and rate definitions.

Limitations and currency

This page summarises what could be verified on the society, board, journal and Ministry of Health websites as of November 2026; site content, congress dates and document versions may change. The relevant official pages should be consulted for current information.