Unusual Position and Presentation of Frontobasal Meningoencephalocela.

We wish to show our experiance with threating a rare congenital brain malformation-encephalocele. It is a protusion of brain matter with greater incidence in the Far East. Our case is even more curious because of the site of occurrence-frontobasal. Most of encephalocele occur in the occipital region. In this article we report a case of a 57-year-old woman, without deformations on the face, which had epileptic seizures and in spite of receiving antiepileptic drug. She was also frequently treated for sinusitis. She never had rhinoliquorrhea, nor was she diagnosed to have meningitis. In the last few years she had difficulty breathing on her right nostril. After she was diagnosed with encephalocele and treated surgically her recovery was complete and she is without the seizures.

[Influence of smoking on the nasal mucosa mucociliary transport]. / Utecaj pusenja na mukocilijarni transport slunice nosa.

The aim of the study was to compare mucociliary transport between healthy smokers and nonsmokers and to evaluate the influence of the duration of smoking, number of cigarettes per day and age on mucociliary function. The study included 176 subjects divided into two groups. One group consisted of 96 smokers and the other group of 80 nonsmokers. The saccharin test that measures mucociliary transport was performed on all study subjects. Analysis of test results showed a statistically significant difference in mucociliary transport between smokers older than average and the younger ones (t=2.58; df=22; P=0.01 7). Damage to the mucociliary transport was more severe in older smokers. A statistically significant difference in mucociliary transport was also found in smokers with a longer than average duration of smoking habit (t=3.362; df=22; P=0.003). There was no statistically significantly slower mucociliary transport according to the number of cigarettes per day and age at starting smoking. In conclusion, mucociliary transport was statistically slower in smokers that were older and had a longer smoking history as compared with younger smokers having smoking for a shorter time. Smoking has an important effect on mucociliary transport of the nasal mucosa.