Impact of Intranasal Splint Removal Time on Postoperative Complications after Septoplasty

BACKGROUND

Various types of nasal tampons are used for packing after septoplasty. Intranasal splints are widely used as they are more advantageous than other materials regarding the lower complication rates of synechia, and lesser pain during removal. However, there is no consensus on the timing of intranasal splint removal after septoplasty operations.

AIM

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of removal time of intranasal splints on postoperative complications after septoplasty.

METHODS

One hundred patients who had septoplasty were randomly divided into two groups according to splint removal time. In group I, the splints were removed on the third postoperative day and in group II, splints were removed on the seventh postoperative day. Pain during splint removal was evaluated by visual analog scale (VAS). Complications of hemorrhage, septal hematoma, crusting, mucosal injury, and infection were recorded during splint removal and compared. In the first postoperative month, hemorrhage, crusting, mucosal injury, infection, synechia, and in the second postoperative month, synechia and perforation rates were compared between two groups.

RESULTS

Mucosal crusting was significantly higher in group II during splint removal. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the complication rates and pain scores. Our findings showed no significant difference in pain scores during splint removal and postoperative complications between the two groups except for mucosal crusting.

CONCLUSION

Based on our findings, although there is no consensus on the optimal time for splint removal, earlier removal of splints can be considered a favorable option after septoplasty operations.

What does the Data of 354,725 Patients from Turkey Tell Us About Cervical Smear Epithelial Cell Abnormalities? - The Epithelial Cell Abnormality Rate is Increasing - Quality Control Studies and Corrective Activity are Musts

OBJECTIVE

There is no other screening program close to the success rate of PAP test. Cervical cytology constitutes a large workload so that quality control in cervical cytology is important for the quality assurance of pathology laboratories.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

In this study, we collected the cervical cytology results from all over Turkey and discussed the parameters influencing the quality of the PAP test. The study was conducted with Turkish gynaecopathology working group and 38 centers (totally 45 hospitals) agreed to contribute from 24 different cities. The study was designed to cover the cervical cytology results during 2013. The results were evaluated from the data based on an online questionnaire.

RESULTS

The total number of Epithelial Cell Abnormality was 18,020 and the global Epithelial Cell Abnormality rate was 5.08% in the total 354,725 smears and ranging between 0.3% to 16.64% among centers. The Atypical squamous cells /Squamous intraepithelial lesion ratios changed within the range of 0.21-13.94 with an average of 2.61. When the centers were asked whether they performed quality assurance studies, only 14 out of 28 centers, which shared the information, had such a control study and some quality parameters were better in these centers.

CONCLUSION

There is an increase in the global Epithelial Cell Abnormality rate and there are great differences among centers. Quality control studies including the Atypical squamous cells/Squamous intraepithelial lesion ratio are important. Corrective and preventive action according to quality control parameters is a must. A cervical cytology subspecialist in every center can be utopic but a dedicated pathologist in the center is certainly needed.

Pyodermatitis vegetans after total colectomy

Pyostomatitis-pyodermatitis vegetans (PPV) is a rare dermatological manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease, characterized by erythematous, vesiculopustular, exudative, annular, and/or vegetating plaques over the intertriginous regions that may precede or appear at the same time as the mucosal lesions. Systemic corticosteroids, dapsone, sulfasalazine, azathioprine, cyclosporine, and subtotal/total colectomy are the most common treatment options. A 16-year-old male patient presented to our outpatient clinic with a four months history of thickly crusted erosions on his trunk, back, and lower extremity. He had ulcerative colitis for four years and total colectomy was done seven months ago. Clinical and histopathological examination of his lesions were consistent with pyostomatitis vegetans. Although subtotal/total colectomy has been reported as a treatment option for PPV, lesions reappeared three months after total colectomy in our patient.

Relation of stem cell markers ALDH1 and CD44 with clinicopathological factors in urothelial carcinomas of urinary bladder

Molecular studies are ongoing in regards to superficial urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) either to define targeted therapy or to better select aggressive therapy candidates and also to delineate the outcome of the disease. In this study, we aimed to present the impact of ALDH1 and CD44 as stem cell markers in tumorigenesis and their prognostic value in urothelial carcinoma. We investigated ALDH1 and CD44 immunohistochemically in paraffin-embedded material of 125 non-muscle-invasive (NMI) cases in 163 UCB patients. In the NMI-UCB subgroup, we found ALDH1 to be significantly correlated with all poor prognostic factors, including high stage (≥pT2), high grade, recurrence and progression development and poor survey (P=0.001) in contrast to CD44 expression (P>0.05). Although ALDH1 expression had a good correlation with a poor clinical course of UCB, it could be used as a molecular marker to determine the best treatment strategy and could contribute to the development of targeted therapies.

A rare case of gingival myiasis in a 2-year-old child

BACKGROUND

Myiasis is the infestation of live human and vertebrate animal with larvae of Diptera fly which feed on the host dead or living tissue. Gingival myiasis is a very rare disease and associated with poor oral hygiene, senility, suppurative oral lesions, mental retardation and other conditions.

CASE REPORT

A case of gingival myiasis in a 2-year-old otherwise healthy child is reported. Treatment consisted of mechanical removal of larvae, extraction of the adjacent devitalized teeth and debridement of necrotic tissues.

CONCLUSION

Clinicians dealing with oral medicine should be aware of this very rare condition in children.