[Treatment of a thyroid neoplasm infiltrating the respiratory-digestive tracts]. / Leczenie raka tarczycy naciekajacego droge oddechowo-pokarmowa.

From 1992 to 1999, 58 thyroid gland operations (41 female and 17 male) were performed in ENT Department of the District Hospital in Rzeszów. In 14 (21.4%) cases (9 female and 5 male) thyroid surgery was done for malignant disorders: papillary carcinoma in 11 (79%) patients, follicular carcinoma in 2 patients and medullary carcinoma in 1 patient. There were neck metastases in 9/14 (64.4%) patients. In 3 cases with papillary carcinoma (all with neck metastases) aerodigestive tract was invaded. One patient had neoplasmatic invasion of the larynx and trachea, one patient had invasion of larynx et pharynx and in one patient tumour invaded the esophageal wall. In those patients radical surgery was done: total thyroidectomy with total laryngectomy and radical neck dissection (2 patients) and subtotal thyroidectomy with conservative neck dissection (1 patient). External beam irradiation and radioactive iodine 131 treatment followed surgery. Two patients are still alive 6 years after the treatment free of disease, and 1 patient died of unrelated causes 3 months after the surgery. Symptoms, diagnostic evaluation and treatment of thyroid papillary carcinoma invading the aerodigestive tract are detailed in paper.

[Bilateral acinar cell carcinoma of the parotid gland]. / Rak z komórek surowiczych obu przyusznic.

Authors have described a case of bilateral acinic cell carcinoma of parotid gland. The patient has been treated successfully by left superficial parotidectomy and right total parotidectomy followed by complementary Co 60 therapy. During 3 years after surgery the patient revealed no recurrence of the disease. Clinical course, histology and pathology have also been presented. The authors have pointed out the difficulties in diagnosing ACC because of the variety of histological pictures and unclear terminology.

[The point of view of otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon on thyroid diseases]. / Spojrzenie otolaryngologa-chirurga glowy i szyi na choroby tarczycy.

In the paper authors have analyzed 70 cases of different neck, throat and larynx tumors connected with thyroid gland (44 female and 26 male, age 14 to 78), treated surgically in ENT Department of Country Hospital No 1 in Rzesów from 1974 to 1994. The material consists of 35 (50%) patients with neck tumors of thyroid origin, 20 (28,6%) patients with the tumor of thyroid gland or with nodular goitre, 8 (11,4%) patients with advanced cancer of the thyroid with shortness of breath and 7 (10%) patients with ectopy or splitted of thyroid. Based on the histopathological examination it was revealed that the highest group consists of patients with thyroid cancer because all of them live in the south-east part of Poland, which is known to be the area of higher risk of thyroid cancer. Neck tumor was the first symptom of thyroid disease in half of patients from the group mentioned above and the first symptom of 57,5% of patients with malignant neoplasms of thyroid gland were metastases to the neck lymph nodes. Among patients with thyroid malignant neoplasm the male:female ratio was 1:1,35, and the mean age-53,5 years was about 10 years higher than in the rest of patients. In 7 patients with thyroid cancer effective radical surgical treatment was applied. In 5 cases surgical treatment exceeded thyroid gland. It required very careful dissection and identification of recurrent laryngeal nerves and parathyroid glands to avoid iatrogenic damage.

[Diseases of the orbit]. / Schorzenia oczodolu.

Diseases of the orbital cavity require more attention because of its specific anatomic structure and placement. Their curing requires cooperation of many medical specialties. Analysis consider orbital fractures, mainly caused by car accidents (69.2%). The next half of them consider inflammatory processes and tumor in equal numbers. Malignant tumors of orbital cavity occur most frequently (48.0%), less frequent are pseudotumors--pseudotumor orbitae (36.0%) and rare--malignant ones (16.0%). Malignant tumors more frequently infiltrate the orbit in neighborhood (63.3%), less frequently they come out from orbit tissue (16.7%). It should be emphasized that the number of orbit inflammations decreases in subsequent years, whereas occurrence of orbit tumors increases.

[A case of sarcoidosis in the orbit]. / Przypadek sarkoidozy w oczodole.

A case is described of a rare location of sarcoidosis in the orbit in a 43-year-old woman. The complaints persisting for four weeks for which the patient sought medical advice were: oedema and left eyelid ptosis with narrowing of the eyelid fissure. In the diagnostic process, endocrine background of the disease was excluded, and a tumour was found in the orbit in computed tomography. The diagnosis of sarcoidosis was made on the basis of histopathological examination of the tissues removed from the orbit during surgical operation.

[A case of spontaneous cerebrospinal rhinorrhea]. / Przypadek samoistnego plynotoku nosowego.

The authors report a case of idiopathic rhinorrhoea in a woman aged 53 years caused by a developmental anomaly of the horizontal lamina of the cribriform bone. Plastic operation of the floor of the anterior cranial fossa was performed.