Postoperative Results in Adult Patients after Tonsillectomy / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although tonsillectomy is one of the most often performed surgeries in Otorhinolaryngology, there has not been any long-term postoperative follow-up studies until now. The authors aimed to validate once more, in a long-term follow up study, the need for performing tonsillectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical records of 180 adult patients who have received tonsillectomy were retrospectively studied, and telephone surveys were made to the patients. The telephone questionnaire was designed to find out the postoperative pain, complications such as bleeding, the time each patient took to return to the normal diet and social life, the degree of improvement in the symptoms and the satisfactory rate. RESULTS: The chief complaints were recurrent sore throat. There was no immediate postoperative bleeding, but secondary bleeding occurred in 12.8% of the patients. The postoperative pain scored 7.4 in a scale of one to ten. The average time in returning to the normal diet and the normal life was 17.9, 21.1 days, respectively. Studies in the symptomatic improvement showed almost no or minimal residual symptom in 99% of the patients and about 95% of the patients answered positively in satisfactory category. CONCLUSION: Tonsillectomy caused great pain postoperatively in most of the patients and returning to the normal diet and life took fairly a long time. However, the positive answers about the symptomatic improvement and the high satisfaction rate validates tonsillectomy as an effective surgical treatment for patients with recurrent tonsillitis.

Four Cases of Rhabdomyosarcoma in the Head and Neck / 대한이비인후과학회지

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a highly aggressive malignant tumor with an incidence of 1/500,000 children per year. Head and neck is the most common site of the embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. We experienced four cases of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, each case originating from temporalis muscle, nasal cavity, parapharynx and nasopharynx. The median age of four patients was 12.5 years old (range, 3-25 years), and the male and female ratio was 2:2 . Two patients were treated with operation and postoperative chemotherapy and irradiation. One patient was treated with induction chemotherapy before operation, and then received postoperative chemotherapy and irradiation. The remaining one patient was incidentally confirmed by excisional biopsy and treated with chemotherapy and irradiation. The median follow-up period was 24 months (range, 6-56 months). Three patients recovered completely with no further evidence of disease. One patient showed breast metastasis after 3 months later.

A Short-Term and Long-Term Follow-up Study on Change of Hearing and Tympanogram after Tympanoplasty Type 1 / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate improvement in hearing and changes in the tympanogram according to the types of mastoid pneumatization and the mucosal condition of the Eustachian tube orifice after performing tympanoplasty type 1. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Among the patients with chronic otitis media who had received tympanoplasty type 1 at Asan Medical Center from June 1990 to March 1997, sixty five patients were evaluated with pure tone audiometry and tympanometry for a short-term (1 year) follow-up period. RESULTS: Greater improvement in hearing was shown in patients with tympanogram type A as compared to the patients with type B and C in both short-term and long-term follow-ups. Patients who showed normal mastoid pneumatization were found to have type A tympanogram more frequently than patients who showed abnormal mastoid pneumatization. However, the degree of postoperative hearing improvement did not depend on the types of mastoid pneumatization. Mucosal condition of the Eustachian tube orifice had some influence on the outcome of postoperative tympanogram and hearing. Greater improvement in the hearing levels were observed more frequently in the normal mucosa. CONCLUSION: Postoperative improvement in hearing was closely related to the postoperative change in the tympanogram. Postoperative hearing results and tympanograms were mainly influenced by the mucosal condition of the Eustachian tube orifice. Relatively greater improvement in hearing was observed in the long-term follow-up compared to the short-term follow-up. However, in order to reach any conclusion on this matter, a longer follow-up period and closer observation would be required.