Unilateral Submandibular Gland Aplasia Associated with Ipsilateral Parotid Gland Atrophy / 대한이비인후과학회지

The isolated unilateral aplasia of the submandibular gland (SMG) is an extremely rare condition, because most cases of congenital absence of the major salivary glands are associated with other anomalies and several major salivary glands. Worldwide, only 15 cases of isolated unilateral SMG aplasia have been reported. Here, we report a case of a 35-year-old woman with isolated unilateral SMG absence. The ipsilateral parotid gland was hypertrophied at the time of initial diagnosis, but this gland showed significant atrophy during the subsequent 3-year follow-up. This phenomenon may be associated with ipsilateral SMG aplasia, and we report this unique case along with a literature review in this paper.

Inadvertent Parathyroidectomy during Thyroid Surgery for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma and Postoperative Hypocalcemia / 대한갑상선학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this article is to report our experience of inadvertent parathyroidectomy during thyroid surgery and to analyze its associated factors and clinical implications. In addition, we attempted to determined causative factors that result in permanent hypocalcemia after thyroid surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of 500 patients who underwent thyroid surgery for the treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma from 2004 to 2008. RESULTS: Inadvertent parathyroidectomy was identified in 7.4% of patients and only 1 parathyroid gland was inadvertently removed in most cases. The incidence of inadvertent parathyroidectomy was not associated with gender, age, type of surgical procedure, tumor size, coexisting Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), extra-thyroidal extension (ETE), lymph node (LN) metastasis, and surgeon's experience. Nor was inadvertent parathyroidectomy associated with permanent postoperative hypocalcemia. Although operating time >120 min, ETE, and total thyroidectomy (TT) with central neck dissection (CND) were found to be related to permanent hypocalcemia on univariate analysis, tumor size > or =1 cm and surgeon's experience or =1 cm and short surgical experience of surgeons, especially in the case of TT with CND. Therefore, we suggest that more accurate risk stratification should be made for routine CND, when it is performed by young surgeons.

Treatment of Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma with Intraoperative Serial Intratumoral Embolization : 2 Cases / 대한이비인후과학회지

Angiofibroma is a rare disease that is diagnosed typically in adolescent male patients as a nonencapsulated, submucosal spreading tumor. Because these tumors are highly vascular, embolization and surgery remain as the two major therapeutic tools. For reducing the blood supply of the tumor and decreasing intraoperative bleeding, embolization has become an effective preoperative procedure. There are two embolization methods which are intravascular and intratumoral embolization. Recently, we experienced two cases of nasopharyngeal angiofibroma that were resected by endoscopic approach after intraoperative serial intratumoral embolization with good results. We report these with a review of literature.