Failures of adenoidectomy for chronic rhinosinusitis in children: for whom and when do they fail?

OBJECTIVES: To determine which children who are treated with adenoidectomy for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) will ultimately undergo endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) and the length of time between adenoidectomy and ESS. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective chart review of prospectively collected data in a tertiary pediatric otolaryngology service. METHODS: One hundred forty-three children had adenoidectomy for CRS over a 10-year period. Follow-up was available on 121 children. Sixty-one children failed the procedure. Data were available on 55 children who underwent ESS after failing adenoidectomy for the treatment of CRS. Mean time from adenoidectomy to ESS was determined. Factors such as age, allergic rhinitis, asthma, computed tomography (CT) score, and sex were evaluated for effects on this time. RESULTS: With use of Cox regression analysis, the mean time from adenoidectomy to ESS was 24 months, ranging from 4 to 77 months. The presence of asthma (P < .04) and age less than 7 years (P < .01) were predictors of earlier failure. Allergic rhinitis (P < .3), CT score (P < .9), and sex (P < .3) showed no effect. CONCLUSIONS: Those who fail adenoidectomy for CRS who require ESS are mainly children who are younger than 7 years of age and have asthma. They appear to require a salvage ESS at a mean of 24 months after the adenoidectomy.

Molecular basis of posttransplant squamous cell carcinoma: the potential role of cyclosporine a in carcinogenesis.

Cyclosporine (CSA) is a widely used immunosuppressive agent, predominantly for transplant patients. It is well recognized that transplant patients are prone to develop squamous carcinoma of the skin and mucosa, and this high incidence of squamous carcinoma in the transplant population cannot be explained by immunosuppression alone. We hypothesize that CSA may play a significant role in the transformation of normal epidermal squamous cells to carcinoma. CSA is a specific ligand for calcineurin, a ubiquitously expressed cellular serine/threonine phosphatase, that plays important roles in the immune system and cardiac muscles. Using global gene-profiling methods, we studied the short-time CSA effect on the squamous cell line (SCC-015) using Affymetrix human gene chips (Human U133, 2.0 plus chip). Multiple groups of genes were identified to be responsive to CSA treatment, including many genes of unknown functions. We then used reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunoblot analyses to selectively confirm the results from the chips analyses with emphasis on the regulatory molecules important for cellular functions of apoptosis, DNA damage repair, and cellular transformation. This global gene-profiling study indicated that CSA not only functions as an immunosuppressant on the immune system, but also activates/inhibits a wide array of genes important for cell-cycle regulation, apoptosis, and oncogene/tumor-suppressor activation. These functions of CSA on skin and mucosa systems at the molecular level are likely important in the pathogenesis of squamous carcinoma in transplant patients.