Pediatric airway reconstruction at Great Ormond Street: a ten-year review. III. Decannulation and suprastomal collapse

One hundred eight consecutive patients with pediatric laryngotracheal stenosis requiring airway reconstruction over a 10-year period were reviewed. Ninety (83%) of the patients were decannulated. Over three quarters of the decannulations took place within 20 months of primary reconstruction. More than half of the patients (47, or 52%) had persistent tracheocutaneous fistulae after decannulation, which required elective closure. The likelihood of a persisting tracheocutaneous fistula is directly related to duration of cannulation.

Pediatric airway reconstruction at Great Ormond Street: a ten-year review. II. Revisional airway reconstruction

One hundred eight consecutive patients with pediatric laryngotracheal stenosis requiring airway reconstruction over a 10-year period were reviewed. Thirty-two patients required revisional airway reconstruction in an attempt to achieve decannulation. Patients underwent from one to four revisional airway reconstructions, most often laryngotracheal reconstruction with costal cartilage grafting. In the Cotton grading scheme of preoperative stenosis, those patients requiring revisional airway surgery tended to come from the more severely affected categories. Twenty-two patients of 32 (69%) achieved decannulation with revisional airway reconstruction. Thus, revisional airway reconstruction is indicated if the first attempt fails.

Pediatric airway reconstruction at Great Ormond Street: a ten-year review. I. Laryngotracheoplasty and laryngotracheal reconstruction

One hundred eight consecutive patients with pediatric laryngotracheal stenosis requiring airway reconstruction over a 10-year period were reviewed. One hundred forty-nine operations consisting of 75 laryngotracheoplasties and 74 laryngotracheal reconstructions with costal cartilage grafting were performed. The Cotton grading scheme of preoperative stenosis was useful in predicting likelihood of decannulation. In all, 90 patients (83%) were decannulated.

Surgical treatment of laryngomalacia

Laryngomalacia is the commonest cause of congenital stridor. The majority of cases are mild and do not require surgical intervention. However in approximately 10 per cent of these infants the condition is life-threatening. The standard treatment for these patients has been to perform a tracheostomy. Recent reports have shown encouraging results following endoscopic surgery to the supraglottic structures. We report a series of twelve patients in whom a tracheostomy was avoided by performing an aryepiglottic fold trim--'aryepiglottoplasty'. Dramatic improvements were seen in the respiratory obstruction and failure to thrive following surgery.

Preservation of facial contour during parotidectomy

Parotid surgery often leaves a facial contour deformity. Free abdominal dermal-fat grafts were used to preserve the facial contour of nine patients undergoing parotid surgery. This procedure is simple to perform and provides an improved cosmetic result without significantly increasing operative time or lengthening hospitalization. No troublesome fat absorption occurred postoperatively. The dermal-fat graft also serves as a barrier to regenerating neurons, thereby preventing postoperative gustatory sweating.

Do angiomas of the nasal septum exist?

Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibromas (JNA) by definition originate in the nasopharynx. Vascular tumors arising in the nasal cavity can easily be mistaken for JNA, when the correct diagnosis is hemangioma or angiofibromatous polyp. We present a case that illustrates this problem, an 11-year-old boy with a unilateral anterior nasal cavity mass associated with recurrent epistaxis. At surgery, the mass was found to arise from the anterior nasal septum and was removed easily with minimal bleeding. The initial pathologic interpretation was JNA. After extensive review of the specimen, however, the diagnosis of hemangioma was made. Similar tumors have been reported as being JNA that have been simple to remove with minimal blood loss. JNA is associated with more severe blood loss, is more difficult to expose surgically and has a higher risk of recurrence than other nasal tumors. Therefore, JNA needs to be distinguished from anterior nasal cavity masses.

Rhinocerebral mucormycosis: results of aggressive surgical debridement and amphotericin B

Rhinocerebral mucormycosis is a fulminant, devastating fungal disease. The use of amphotericin B, combined with aggressive surgical debridement, has increased survival rates from approximately 20% to 70%. Eleven patients with this rare disease have been treated over the past 6 years. Therapy with amphotericin B was begun in all patients as soon as the diagnosis of mucormycosis was suspected. Seven patients underwent aggressive surgical debridement; all seven had disease involving the sphenoethmoidal complex, requiring external ethmoidectomy with or without sphenoidotomy. Six patients had maxillary sinus disease, requiring Caldwell-Luc antrostomy or maxillectomy. Three patients required orbital exenteration. Surgery was performed within 24 hours of diagnosis on all but two of our patients. Despite prompt diagnosis, aggressive surgical debridement, therapy with amphotericin B, and correction of metabolic acidosis, our mortality rate was 82%. Rhinocerebral mucormycosis remains a rapidly progressive, frequently fatal disease.

Rhinocerebral mucormycosis: MR manifestations

Magnetic resonance (MR) examinations of three patients with rhinocerebral mucormycosis are reviewed. The clinical course is outlined and the MR characteristics are analyzed in light of the known pathology. The major MR findings include sinus and orbital disease followed by deep facial extension. Involvement of basal portions of the hemispheres, brain stem, and hypothalamus occurred rapidly following ipsilateral facial or orbital invasion in all three cases. Regions of intracerebral inflammation were hyperintense compared with normal parenchyma on T2-weighted and proton density-weighted images. Septic cavernous sinus and internal carotid artery thrombosis was diagnosed by MR in one case. Magnetic resonance demonstrated partial resolution of intracerebral abnormalities that accompanied clinical improvement in the one surviving patient.

Ganciclovir prophylaxis for cochlear pathophysiology during experimental guinea pig cytomegalovirus labyrinthitis

The effectiveness of the antiviral agent ganciclovir (9-[1,3-dihydroxy-2-propoxymethyl]guanine) against guinea pig cytomegalovirus was tested in vitro in guinea pig embryonic fibroblasts and in vivo in an experimental guinea pig cytomegalovirus labyrinthitis model. In vitro, ganciclovir completely prevented guinea pig cytomegalovirus infection of guinea pig embryonic fibroblasts at concentrations above 32.6 micrograms/ml. In vivo, antibody-negative animals had an average 17-dB elevation in their auditory nerve compound action potential thresholds (P less than 0.01, t test) and showed signs bilaterally of guinea pig cytomegalovirus labyrinthitis 8 days after intrathecal inoculation of virus. Ganciclovir administration starting 1 day before inoculation prevented the development of both cochlear histopathologic change and hearing loss. Guinea pig cytomegalovirus meningitis was observed in both the drug-treated and untreated groups. High-pressure liquid chromatography confirmed the presence of ganciclovir in the serum, perilymph, and cerebrospinal fluid of the drug recipients. Prophylactic ganciclovir thus can protect the cochlea from the histopathologic changes and hearing loss normally associated with experimental guinea pig cytomegalovirus labyrinthitis.

Surgery for bilateral nasal valvular collapse

The nasal valve is an important regulator of nasal airflow. Patients may suffer from nasal obstruction due to bilateral nasal valvular collapse combined with a drooping tip. A simple, effective technique of cartilage grafting to open the valve is forwarded. The advantages of this method include placing the graft in the submucosal plane which preserves mucosa and protects the graft from nasal secretions while healing.

An approach to the failed cricoid split operation

The cricoid split operation is a well established treatment for subglottic stenosis; the success rate for this procedure is approximately 77%. The management of patients who fail this operation has traditionally involved tracheostomy followed by delayed laryngotracheoplasty. We have treated 22 patients using the cricoid split--6 required subsequent tracheostomy. Two-thirds of the patients with a tracheostomy have been unable to be decannulated, even after laryngotracheoplasty. In contrast, 3 patients had repeat cricoid split operations instead of tracheostomy. All 3 of these children have had no further problems with their airway. The authors propose that in patients who fail the cricoid split operation one consider repeating the procedure instead of performing a tracheostomy.

A population-based study of diabetes mortality

In a population-based investigation among the residents of Rochester, Minnesota, the diabetes mortality rate was 8.5 per 100,000 person-years with diabetes as the underlying cause of death, 31.5 per 100,000 person-years with diabetes as an underlying or contributory cause, and 82.7 per 100,000 person-years if all deaths among diabetic individuals were counted. Diabetes was not mentioned on the certificate in 62% of the 428 diabetic deaths during 1965-1974. When the clinical characteristics of the subgroup of mortality cases in 1969 were compared with those of the prevalence cases on 1 January 1970, it was found that mortality cases tended to be older, were more often on insulin therapy, and were more likely to have macro- and microvascular complications. Because mortality data are sometimes used to infer trends and characteristics for the diabetic population at large, it is important to recognize these biases.

Referral bias in diabetes research

Of all the known diabetic individuals residing in the community of Rochester, Minnesota, only about one-half would have been recognized through a review of the medical records of 1 yr. Only one-fifth of the diabetic residents were hospitalized during the index year and a similarly small proportion were attended in a diabetes clinic. This selective process produced distortion in the apparent clinical spectrum of diabetes observed at different levels in the medical care system. Notable was overestimation of the relative importance of insulin-dependent diabetes and of the vascular complications of diabetes among hospital and diabetes clinic patients. Referral bias should be taken into account when differences are noted in the epidemiologic features of diabetes as reported from different types of medical care settings.

Sources of disparity in the spectrum of diabetes mellitus at incidence and prevalence

In a population-based study in Rochester, Minnesota, the clinical characteristics of 1135 patients newly diagnosed with diabetes (1945-69) were compared with those of 810 residents with diabetes mellitus on prevalence day (1 January 1970). The prevalence patients were older and the male: female ratio was reduced from that seen among incidence cases. The prevalence patients were more likely to be on oral agents, had lower fasting blood glucose levels, were less likely to be symptomatic, but were more likely to have macrovascular and microvascular complications. These differences seemed to come about as a result of variation in survival rates among patients with specific characteristics, differential migration of certain groups of patients, and changes in the status of individuals.