Incidental Ignition of a Pulsed Dye Laser Fiber During Laryngomicrosurgery: A Case Report

Surgical fires require an ignition source, oxidizer, and fuel. The pulsed dye laser (PDL) has been shown to be effective in the treatment of hypertrophic scars and keloids in dermatology. With the increasing number of applications of CO2, laser as ignition source has been associated with operating room fires in the otorhinolaryngologic field. There have been many case reports on PDL-induced fires in dermatology, but until now, there were no reports in the larynx. We describe a 57-year-old patient diagnosed with laryngeal hyperkeratosis treated by PDL-assisted laryngomicrosurgery. In this case, we experienced incidental PDL tip flaring during pulsed dye laser vaporization.

Analysis of Prevalence and Risk Factors of Chronic Rhinosinusitis in Hyperlipidemia Patients / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: According to previous studies, acute and chronic cholesterol depletion in the cell membranes of human airway epithelial cells suppresses MUC5AC gene expression. Also statins and lipid-lowering drugs are known to have anti-inflammatory effects. From these results, we hypothesize that the use of statin decreases the prevalence of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the correlation between hyperlipidemia and the use of statin and prevalence of CRS in Korea. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The data were based on the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2010 and 2011. Symptom-based criteria of European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps 2012 were used to define CRS. 12000 people were enrolled in this study. RESULTS: The CRS prevalence of hyperlipidemia group (14.13%) was significantly higher than that of non-hyperlipidemia group (10.87%) (p=0.0005). However, the CRS prevalence between statin users (14.27%) and nonusers (13.94%) in hyperlipidemia group showed no significant differences. Thus, hyperlipidemia itself was a risk factor of CRS regardless of using statin. Allergic rhinitis was the only significant risk factor of CRS in hyperlipidemia group in multivariate regression analysis. CONCLUSION: Hyperlipidemia patients who have allergic rhinitis are at risk of CRS regardless of whether they use statins; however, further study using objective data will be required to verify this result.

Expectorant and Antitussive Effect of Hedera helix and Rhizoma coptidis Extracts Mixture

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the additive effect of the Hedera helix (HH) and Rhizoma coptidis (RC) extracts mixture on antitussive and expectorant activities in animals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The expectorant assay was performed with phenol red secretion in mice trachea. Mice or guinea pigs were randomly divided into groups of 8 each, including negative and positive control groups. After gastric administration of the test extracts in mice, 2.5% phenol red solution (0.2 mL) was intraperitoneally injected. Trachea was dissected and optical density of tracheal secretion was measured. After gastric administration of the test extracts in guinea pigs, the antitussive activities were assessed using a citric acid-induced cough measurement. RESULTS: The extracts of HH and RC significantly increased tracheal secretion and inhibited cough. The mixture of HH and RC extracts in a 1:1 concentration at a dose of 200 mg/kg showed a more potent effect on phenol red secretion (25.25+/-3.14) and cough inhibition (61.25+/-5.36) than the individual use of each extracts [phenol red secretion; HH 13.39+/-4.22 (p=0.000), RC 20.78+/-2.50 (p=0.010), cough inhibition; HH 9.89+/-4.14 (p=0.010), RC 30.25+/-7.69 (p=0.000)]. A 3:1 ratio mixture of HH to RC demonstrated an optimal expectorant effect (p<0.001), and this mixture showed expectorant and antitussive effects in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence for antitussive and expectorant effect of a 3:1 mixture of HH and RC, which may be a useful therapeutic option for respiratory diseases.

A Case of Middle Ear Implantation with Vibroplasty Coupler at the Stapes / 대한이비인후과학회지

Middle ear implantation is an effective treatment for sensorineural, conductive and mixed hearing loss. The active middle ear implant's floating mass transducer (FMT) is placed on the middle ear structure or coupled to the inner ear fluid. Since the device is not directly placed on the external auditory canal, patients are free from feedback phenomenon and occlusion effect resulting from hearing aids. A 66-year-old patient suffered from bilateral hearing loss. The patient had difficulties in adapting to a conventional hearing aid because of feedback phenomenon in the right ear. The patient underwent a middle ear implantation using a CliP-Coupler to connect stapes head and FMT in the left ear. To our knowledge, this is the first case reported in Korea on middle ear implantation with CliP-Coupler at the stapes, for which hearing results were successful at postoperative 7 months.