[Children born with a cleft: treatment at the CHUV in Lausanne]

A cleft can be labial, labial-maxillary, unilateral or bilateral labial-maxillary-palatal, or isolated palatal. A multidisciplinary team includes several specialists who will handle the diverse problems of children born with a cleft. This team will follow the child through each developmental stage and assemble an optimal treatment plan, thus reducing the onus on the family. Depending on the type of cleft and the age of the child, feeding, speech, ORL, dental, orthodontic, esthetic and possibly also psychological problems will be taken care of. This is why cleft treatment starts at the time it is diagnosed, before or after birth, and ends when the child is fully grown. It requires a complete interdisciplinary team and the collaboration with obstetricians and geneticians.

[Chronic otitis media in children]

Otitis media with effusion is the main chronic otitis in children. It is very common under 5 years of age. It is often asymptomatic or is revealed by a hearing loss, delaying language development or causing behaviour troubles or balance troubles. Repeated acute otitis media may also occur. Tympanic membrane aspect is variable: pneumotoscopy and tympanometry are valuable diagnostic tools. Long term consequences on child development and possible scarring of the eardrum and the ossicles must be kept in mind. Treatment consists in watchful waiting during 3 months, then adenoidectomy and middle ear drainage. There is no efficient drug. Other chronic middle ear infections may cause serious hearing and infectious complications and require surgical treatment.

[Indications for tonsillectomy in 2005]

Tonsillectomy is one of the most frequent ENT operations but yet a very disputed one. The majority of children and adults are treated for recurrent angina, which is validated by several clinical trials. For an adult a peritonsillar abscess is best treated by immediate tonsillectomy. Incision and drainage is a validated method as well, as long as there is no indication to a delayed tonsillectomy. The tonsillectomy alone is not a validated treatment for adult upper airway obstruction. On the other hand it is a recommended procedure for children upper airway obstruction. Partial tonsillectomy (tonsillotomy) is also a validated procedure for this indication. Finally the peritonsillar abscess in a child should first be treated by one or two days of intravenous antibiotics.

Fate and functions of human adult lymphoid cells in immunodeficient mice

Laboratory models enabling to study in vivo human leukocyte functions have been developed. Most of the models consist of human immunocytes transferred to mice homozygous for the scid mutation. Mice with additional immunodeficient-prone genetic background or with immunodeficiency-induced conditioning have also been used. Human grafts mainly consisted of human immune cells in suspension injected intraperitoneally, or in pieces of human organs containing immunocytes implanted subcutaneously. Cells in suspension could be easily manipulated in vitro before transfer to the animal, but disseminated within the mouse body. In opposition, human cells mostly remained within implantation areas of animals given human organ pieces. This favorizes cell interactions and helps for cell recovery after their in vivo passage. Moreover, the diversity of antibodies in animals transplanted with human lymphoid organ pieces appeared broader than that of mice transferred with lymphocytes in suspension. Spontaneous recall antibody and autoantibody productions have been generally observed in animals transferred with cells from donors with such antibodies. In vivo boosting of recall antibody by antigen has been most successful, but such a manipulation inconstantly boosted autoantibodies. Primary human T and B cell responses were difficult to obtain in xenochimeric animals, and success has been generally obtained by optimizing human immune response parameters, such as antigen presentation.

[Influence of naso-sinusal anatomic variants on recurrent, persistent or chronic sinusitis. X-ray computed tomographic evaluation in 112 patients]

Using CT scan, we studied the influence of the most important sinonasal anatomic variants on 112 patients, aged more than 16 years, suffering from recurrent, persistent or chronic sinusitis. The series was characterized by the absence of: multifocal sinusitis, polyposis, dental or mycotic sinusitis, traumatic, tumour, actinic or prior surgery. We compared our results with those of the literature. Our findings confirmed the association between recurrent, persistent or chronic sinusitis, and ipsilateral septal ridges or spurs (33%), unusual ipsilateral deflexions of uncinate process (31%), and contralateral septal watch glass like deviation (42%). We found no correlation for the other studied variants (concha bullosa, paradoxical curve of middle turbinate, pneumatised uncinate process, hypertrophic ethmoid bulla, Haller cell and accessory maxillary ostium).

Concentrations of azithromycin in tonsilar and/or adenoid tissue from paediatric patients

Azithromycin levels in tonsillar and/or adenoid tissue were determined in children (1.6-7.5 years old) who were scheduled for surgical removal of their tonsils and/or adenoids. The children received azithromycin oral suspension 10 mg/kg once daily for 3 days. Tissue samples were obtained during surgery 1 (n = 4), 2 (n = 5), 4 (n = 6), or 8 (n = 5) days after the last dose of azithromycin. Serum samples were also obtained from four children in each of these groups at the time of surgery. Mean tissue concentrations of azithromycin were 10.33 +/- 3.01, 7.21 +/- 4.04, 9.30 +/- 3.74 and 1.49 +/- 0.48 mg/kg, respectively, 1, 2, 4 and 8 days after the last dose. At the corresponding times, serum concentrations were markedly lower: 47.25 +/- 19. 19, 14.00 +/- 8.45, 8.00 +/- 2.16 and < 4 micrograms/L, respectively. The mean tissue:serum concentration ratios were, 227 +/- 54, 547 +/- 184 and 956 +/- 355, respectively, 1, 2 and 4 days after treatment. No adverse events attributable to azithromycin were observed in any of the 23 children who had received at least one dose of azithromycin. The study shows that levels of azithromycin in tonsillar and adenoid tissue were consistently higher than in serum and remained elevated up to 8 days after the end of dosing, supporting the use of a short-course (3-day), once-daily regimen of azithromycin in the treatment of upper respiratory tract infections.