Acute Calcific Retropharyngeal Tendinitis: Case Report

Acute calcific retropharyngeal tendinitis, also known as calcific tendinitis of the longus colli, is an underrecognized inflammatory condition by deposition of calcium hydroxyapatite in the tendon fibers of the longus colli muscles. This disease entity may occur in any part of the body, however, rarely occur in the prevertebral musculature. Symptoms and signs of this disease are neck pain and stiffness associated with odynophagia and retropharyngeal soft tissue swelling. Because of self-limiting disease, the symptoms resolve usually with or without anti-inflammatory medication and analgesics within days or weeks. We report a case of acute calcific retropharyngeal tendinitis with a reviews of the related literatures.

A Case of Orbital Apex Syndrome Caused by Paranasal Sinusitis / 대한이비인후과학회지

Acute visual loss may occur in association with sinusitis either as a complication of orbital cellulitis or, less frequently, as a part of the orbital apex syndrome. Originally, an orbital apex syndrome is associated with an affection of the vessels and nerves passing through the superior orbital fissure and the optic foramen. A classical feature of orbital apex syndrome is presented with visual loss and ophthalmoplegia, but with minimal or no signs of orbital inflammation such as proptosis, chemosis, or lid edema. We present a case of male patient with alternating bilateral visual loss with ophthalmoplegia secondary to paranasal sinusitis.

A Case of Nevus Lipomatosus Cutaneous Superficialis

Nevus lipomatosus cutaneous superficialis is a very rare disorder characterized by nevoid fatty growth in the dermis. It usually arises in the pelvic girdle, so is unfamiliar to most otolaryngologists. A case of a 72-year-old male with nevus lipomatosus cutaneous superficialis in the nasal cavity is presented with a brief review of the disease.

A Case of Isolated neurofibroma arising from the Vocal Cord / 대한이비인후과학회지

Neurofibroma of the larynx is a rare disease. Endolaryngeal neurofibromas may take place as an isolated lesion or a part of multiple neurofibromatosis (von Recklinghausen's disease). A case of endolaryngeal neurofibroma was the first reported by Suchanek in 1925. Following the first report, there have been sporadic reports of endolaryngeal neurofibroma When the lesion is in the larynx, the major site is the aryepiglottic fold or the arytenoid, because the branch of the superior laryngeal nerve is involved. Rarely, a vocal cord is also concerned. Surgical excision is the treatment of choice. We report a case of isolated neurofibroma arising from the right true vocal cord.

A Case of Arteriovenous Malformation of the Parotid Gland / 대한이비인후과학회지

Arteriovenous malformation is a part of the spectrum of vascular malformations that involve shunting of blood from the arterial vessel directly into the venous system. The most frequent locations, in order of incidence, are the extremities, the lungs, and the head and neck. However, arteriovenous malformation of the parotid gland is rare, The "turkey wattle" sign describes the enlargement of a facial mass in dependency of the head, and when present, it is pathognomonic of hemangioma or vascular malformation. The treatment of choice is to complete removal of the mass by surgery to stop their progress. We report a recent encounter with a case of arteriovenous malformation of the parotid gland in a 43-year-old female patient. This disorder was successfully removed by total parotidectomy with the preservation of the facial nerve.

A Case of Intraparotid Facial Nerve Neurofibroma / 대한이비인후과학회지

Neurogenic neoplasms of the facial nerve are uncommon. These neoplasms are usually classified into two types: schwannoma and neurofibroma. Although intraparotid facial nerve schwannomas have been documented sporadically throughout the medical literature, neurofibromas from intraparotid facial nerve are extremely rare. Neurogenic neoplasms of the intraparotid facial nerve are usually diagnosed intraoperatively by tissue biopsy. The management of neurogenic tumors associated with normal facial function is a particularly difficult problem. These benign tumors of neurogenic origin should be considered in the differential diagnosis of parotid masses. This is a case report of a solitary neurofibroma involving the main trunk of the facial nerve in the parotid gland.

Acoustical Effects of Short-Term Endotracheal Intubation / 대한이비인후과학회지

Background and Objective: Patients often complain of transient hoarseness and dysphagia after undergoing procedures requiring endotracheal intubation. Transient voice changes associated with endotracheal intubation are generally assumed to be a result of vocal fold trauma. This study was designed to characterise vocal changes aftershort-term endotracheal anesthesia using acoustic analysis for monitoring the presence of and recovery from intubation trauma. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Vocal functions of 25 patients undergoing chronic ear surgeries using general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation were analyzed preoperatively and postoperatively. Fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, noise to harmonic ratio were measured to assess vocal function. RESULTS: In male, fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, noise toharmonic ratio did not differ significantly across recording sessions, although certain predictable trends were apparent. In female, statistically significant decrement in fundamental frequency and increment in jitter and shimmer were found postoperatively (p<0.05). One day after extubation, these change were return to preoperative values. CONCLUSION: Even short-term endotracheal intubation affects acoustic-characteristics of voice and acoustic analysis are sensitive to identify and monitor minor laryngeal trauma due to endotracheal intubation.

The Effect of All-trans-retinoic Acid on the Cell Cycle of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Retinoids, including vitamin A and its synthetic analogs, are known to suppress carcinogenesis in various epithelial tissues and also to inhibit the cell growth of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). However, the exact mechanism of retinoids is not yet known. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of all-trans-retinoic acid (RA) on the cell cycle in HNSCCs and to see if the inhibition of cell growth by RA is due to the arrest of cell cycle. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For in vitro study, AMC-HN-4 and AMC-HN-6 (HNSCC cell lines) were treated with 1 nM of RA and cultured for 6 days. CellTiter 96(TM) AQ(ueous) Non-Reactive Cell Proliferation Assay kit was used to analyze the inhibition of cell growth. Flow cytometric analysis was performed for cell cycle analysis. For in vivo study, AMC-HN-4 and AMC-HN-6 were injected subcutaneously into athymic nude mice and RA (20 mg/kg) was orally administered once a day for 30 days. Tumor volumes were measured with digimatic caliper and the cell cycle was analyzed using frozen specimens. RESULTS: The growth of AMC-HN-4 and AMC-HN-6 were inhibited by RA in vitro and in vivo. The inhibitory effect of RA was more significant in AMC-HN-4 than in AMC-HN-6. RA had no significant effect on the cell cycle in the medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), but there was a mild increase in the G1 phase in the medium containing 0.5% FBS in vitro. In vivo, the increase in G1 phase was observed in both AMC-HN-4 and AMC-HN-6. Also, G1 arrest was more significant in AMC-HN-4 than in AMC-HN-6. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that RA may induce G1 arrest, which might be associated with the inhibition of cell growth in HNSCCs.

The Effects of Retinoids on Expression of beta4 Integrin and Growth of the Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Lines / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Retinoids have been used in chemoprevention trials for a variety of epithelial malignancies. However, high incidence of toxicity and drug resistance remains as problems. Increase of the retinoid metabolism by cytochrome P450 has been known as one of the several mechanisms explaining these toxicity and the aquired resistance. There have been many studies about the biological effects of retinoids in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), but there is no information about the effects of the retinoids metabolism on cell biology. The study presented here is designed to examine the relationship between cytochrome P450 induction and responses to retinoids in the HNSCC cell lines. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used a human HNSCC cell lines (AMC-HN-4, AMC-HN-6). The change of metabolic activity was analyzed using thin layer chromatography (TLC). The effects of retinoids on cell proliferation were evaluated with CellTiter 96 TMAQueous Cell Proliferation Assay. The effects of retinoids on beta4 integrin expression were evaluated with flow cytometry. RESULTS: The inhibitory effects of retinoids on cell proliferation were higher in AMC-HN-4 cell line (cytochrome P450 uninducible) than in AMC-HN-6 cell line (cytochrome P450 inducible) (p<0.05). The expression of beta4 integrin was more effectively suppressed in the AMC-HN-4 cell line than in the AMC-HN-6 cell line. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that cytochrome P450 inducilbility may be an important factor to determine the biological effects of retinoids in HNSCC cells.

Effect of Mastoidectomy and Posterior Tympanotomy on Postoperative Hearing / 대한이비인후과학회지

To evaluate the effect of mastoidectomy and posterior tympanotomy on postoperative hearing, 101 cases of type I tympanoplasty operated by one operator were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were divided into three groups; Group I(N=14) was the type I tympanoplasty without mastoidectomy ; Group II(N=44) was the type I tympanoplasty with simple mastoidectomy ; Group III(N=43) was the type I tympanoplasty and mastoidectomy with posterior tympanotomy. The type of operation was determined by preoperative physical finding, radiological findings, and decision was finally made during the operation. Preoperative mean air-bone gaps of pure tone average were significantly different among three groups(group I;13 dBHL; group II ; 22 dBHL, group III ; 31 dBHL). There was no significant difference of the postoperative air-bone gap gains at speech frequencies among three groups and the average gain was about 9 dBHL at 3 months, 11 dBHL at 6 months. respectively. However, the postoperative hearing was significantly changed according to the types of operation in the air and bone conduction, specially in the high tone area. At the 4 kHz, postoperative bone conduction did not changed significantly in the group I and II, however, postopearive bone conduction significantly worsened from 14 dBHL to 20-22 dBHL in the group III. In the same time, air conduction at 8 kHz was significantly aggravated from 52 dBHL to 65 dBHL postoperatively in the group III.