Changes in hearing during extracorporeal cardiopulmonary bypass

Sudden sensory-neural hearing loss has been reported after the use of the extracorporeal cardiopulmonary bypass apparatus. This study was conducted on 50 patients who underwent surgery requiring the use of apparatus. Preoperative, postoperative and long term follow-up audiologic assessments were performed together with recording of all possible contributing factors such as the bypass time, aortic clamp time, peri and postoperative medications in an attempt to cover all possible aspects of this problem. A bilateral 10 dB increase of threshold including most frequencies occurred in only 4 patients. Although an embolic etiology has been suggested in most previously published reports, doubt is cast on this causation which is discussed in detail. The very mild bilateral hearing loss in our series can. be explained more likely on the basis of perfusion failure theory in addition to the possibility of ototoxicity

Evaluation of laryngopharyngeal manifestations of gastroesophageal reflux disease

Thirty-one patients with recurrent severe reflux symptoms were studied for esophageal motility, endoscopy, radiology as well as 24-hour pH esophageal monitoring. All patients were subjected to full history taking and fiberoptic laryngopharyngoscopy. 23 patients had persistent laryngopharyngeal symptoms mainly dysphonia. Erythema was a constant sign in all complaining patients and there were 8 cases with contact granuloma and 6 cases had cordal nodules. The occurrence of laryngopharyngeal manifestations [LPHM] in GERD patients was not related neither to the severity of endoscopic esophagitis nor to the lower esophageal sphincter pressure [LESP] and esophageal body peristaltic abnormalities. On the other hand, the LPHM were more related to hiatal hernia [88.9%] and abnormally relaxed upper esophageal sphincter. The 24-hour pH esophageal monitoring was a valuable tool in detecting pathologic acid reflux in 76.9% of the patients and its results were proportionate to the severity of LPHM

Management of post-traumatic orbito-zygomatic deformities

In this study, 20 patients with post-traumatic orbitozygomatic deformities were clinically and radiologically evaluated and surgical correction was tried for every patient using craniofacial techniques. The details of soft tissues and skeletal reconstruction as well as functional and aesthetic results were discussed. Postoperative complications occurred in 20% of the cases, the most severe being loss of vision. Craniofacial techniques allowed proper correction of the post traumatic orbitozygomatic deformities and provided acceptable functional and aesthetic results

Chlamydia IgA in acute ENT infections

Detection of Chlamydia IgA was done in 106 patients with acute infections in ear, nose and throat sites. The patients were divided into 3 diagnostic groups [pharyngitis, otitis media and sinusitis groups]. Acute phase serum antibodies were measured by using ELISA diagnostic kit Chlamydia IgA [eurogenetics]. The antibodies were detected in 8.8% [6/68] of those patients with pharyngitis, 30.7% [8/26] of those with otitis media and 8.3% [1/12] of those with sinusitis, whereas no one of the control group had acute antibodies. The overall incidence of acute antibodies was 14.2% [15/106]. This put Chlamydia species as an important etiologic pathogen in acute ENT infections