Safety of a Novel Upper Esophageal Sphincter Balloon Dilator.

OBJECTIVE: The shape of esophageal dilators has not changed in over 350 years. Clinical and animal research suggests that the upper esophageal sphincter (UES) is not round but approximates a kidney shape and that cylindrical dilators may be suboptimal. The Infinity UES Dilation System has been developed specifically for the anatomic configuration of the UES. This study evaluates the safety of the UES-specific Infinity Dilation System. METHODS: All patients undergoing dilation of the UES between January 1, 2022 and September 1, 2023 were included. Demographics, procedure indication, dilator type, minor adverse events, and major complications were abstracted. Minor adverse events, complications, and maximum dilation dimension (mm) were compared between groups. RESULTS: A total of 477 patients were included. Eight hundred and seventy-three total UES dilations were performed. The primary indications for UES dilation were cricopharyngeus muscle dysfunction (43%) and stenosis from radiation toxicity (40%). Twenty-three percent (202/873) of dilations were performed with an Infinity balloon, 31% (270/873) were performed using two conventional balloons placed side by side, and 46% (401/873) were performed with one singleton conventional balloon. The average maximum dilation dimension was 33 (±4.7) mm for Infinity balloons, 32 (±3.8) mm for two side-by-side balloons, and 18 (±3.4) mm for singleton balloons. There were three major complications with conventional balloons and none with Infinity balloons. There were no significant differences in minor adverse events between groups. CONCLUSIONS: A UES-specific esophageal dilator provides a greater maximum dilation dimension and appears to be at least as safe as dilation with a single cylindrical balloon designed to dilate the esophagus. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 3 Laryngoscope, 2024.

Sociodemographic Disparities in Tracheostomy Timing and Outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: Tracheostomies are commonly performed in critically ill patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation. Although early tracheostomy has been associated with improved outcomes, the reasons for delayed tracheostomy are complex. We examined the impact of sociodemographic factors on tracheostomy timing and outcomes. METHODS: Medical records were retrospectively reviewed of ventilator-dependent adult patients who underwent tracheostomy from 2021 to 2022. Tracheostomy timing was defined as routine (<21 days) versus late (21 days or more). Sociodemographic variables were compared between cohorts using univariate and multivariate models. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay (LOS), decannulation, tracheostomy-related complications, and inhospital mortality. RESULTS: One hundred forty-two patients underwent tracheostomy after initial intubation: 74.7% routine (n = 106) and 25.4% late (n = 36). In a multivariate model adjusted for age, race, surgical service, tracheostomy technique, and time between consultation and surgery, non-English speaking patients and women were more likely to receive a late tracheostomy compared with English speaking patients and men, respectively (odds ratio [OR] 3.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03, 9.81, p < 0.05), (OR 3.15, 95% CI 1.18, 8.41, p < 0.05). Late tracheostomy was associated with longer median hospital LOS (62 vs. 52 days, p < 0.05). Tracheostomy timing did not significantly impact mortality, decannulation or tracheostomy-related complications. CONCLUSION: Despite an association between earlier tracheostomy and shorter LOS, non-English speaking patients and female patients are more likely to receive a late tracheostomy. Standardized protocols for tracheostomy timing may address bias in the referral and execution of tracheostomy and reduce unnecessary hospital days. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Laryngoscope, 134:582-587, 2024.

Defining the Performance of Clinician's Ability to Screen for Laryngeal Mass From Voice.

OBJECTIVE: Defining a clinician's ability to perceptually identify mass from voice will inform the feasibility, design priorities, and performance standards for tools developed to screen for laryngeal mass from voice. This study defined clinician ability of and examined the impact of expertise on screening for laryngeal mass from voice. STUDY DESIGN: Task comparison study between experts and nonexperts rating voices for the probability of a laryngeal mass. SETTING: Online, remote. METHODS: Experts (voice-focused speech-language pathologists and otolaryngologists) and nonexperts (general medicine providers) rated 5-s/i/voice samples (with pathology defined by laryngoscopy) for the probability of laryngeal mass via an online survey. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) estimated interrater and intrarater reliability. Diagnostic performance metrics were calculated. A linear mixed effects model examined the impact of expertise and pathology on ratings. RESULTS: Forty clinicians (21 experts and 19 nonexperts) evaluated 344 voice samples. Experts outperformed nonexperts, with a higher area under the curve (70% vs 61%), sensitivity (49% vs 36%), and specificity (83% vs 77%) (all comparisons p < .05). Interrater reliability was fair for experts and poor for nonexperts (ICC: 0.48 vs 0.34), while intrarater reliability was excellent and good, respectively (ICC: 0.9 and 0.6). The main effects of expertise and underlying pathology were significant in the linear model (p < .001). CONCLUSION: Clinicians demonstrate inadequate performance screening for laryngeal mass from voice to use auditory perception for dysphonia triage. Experts' superior performance indicates that there is acoustic information in a voice that may be utilized to detect laryngeal mass based on voice.

Quantifying and Improving the Performance of Speech Recognition Systems on Dysphonic Speech.

OBJECTIVE: This study seeks to quantify how current speech recognition systems perform on dysphonic input and if they can be improved. STUDY DESIGN: Experimental machine learning methods based on a retrospective database. SETTING: Single academic voice center. METHODS: A database of dysphonic speech recordings was created and tested against 3 speech recognition platforms. Platform performance on dysphonic voice input was compared to platform performance on normal voice input. A custom speech recognition model was trained on voice from patients with spasmodic dysphonia or vocal cord paralysis. Custom model performance was compared to base model performance. RESULTS: All platforms performed well on normal voice, and 2 platforms performed significantly worse on dysphonic speech. Accuracy metrics on dysphonic speech returned values of 84.55%, 88.57%, and 93.56% for International Business Machines (IBM) Watson, Amazon Transcribe, and Microsoft Azure, respectively. The secondary analysis demonstrated that the lower performance of IBM Watson and Amazon Transcribe was driven by performance on spasmodic dysphonia and vocal fold paralysis. Thus, a custom model was built to increase the accuracy of these pathologies on the Microsoft platform. Overall, the performance of the custom model on dysphonic voices was 96.43% and on normal voices was 97.62%. CONCLUSION: Current speech recognition systems generally perform worse on dysphonic speech than on normal speech. We theorize that poor performance is a consequence of a lack of dysphonic voices in each platform's original training dataset. We address this limitation with transfer learning used to increase the performance of these systems on all dysphonic speech.

Update on Tracheostomy and Upper Airway Considerations in the Head and Neck Cancer Patient.

Patients with head and neck cancer account for a large proportion of perioperative airway events. Further, these patients frequently require tracheostomy placement, which is one of the most common surgical procedures. This article reviews updated techniques in managing a difficult airway in patients with head and neck cancer, such as strategies for intubation/extubation, methods of tubeless laryngeal surgery, and techniques and relevant topics in tracheostomy management.

Assessing the Clinical Utility of the Early Postoperative Pharyngogram in Hypopharyngeal Surgery for Dysphagia.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To evaluate the clinical utility of postoperative contrast x-ray pharyngograms (XRP) for detecting pharyngoesophageal leaks following hypopharyngeal dysphagia surgery. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: Medical records were reviewed of patients undergoing endoscopic (E-) or open (O-) Zenker's diverticulectomy (-ZD) with cricopharyngeal myotomy (-CPM) and CPM alone from 2008 to 2020 at one academic institution. Exclusion criteria were patients who were fed enterally or underwent repair of epiphrenic diverticula or O-CPM during laryngectomy. XRP clinical indication, impact on clinical care, and factors associated with use patterns were examined using descriptive statistics and logistic regression (LR). RESULTS: Of 152 subjects, 52% underwent O-ZD, 30% O-CPM, 15% E-ZD, and 3% E-CPM. An XRP was ordered for 65% of subjects, mostly routinely (94%). Among the four clinically apparent leaks observed in this cohort, early postoperative XRP confirmed one. It did not identify any clinically silent leaks. In univariate LR, undergoing XRP was associated with increasing day of diet advancement (odds ratio [OR] 4.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.5-10.5) and hospital stay duration (OR 3.2, 95% CI 2.1-5.2), as well as surgeon specialty of otolaryngology compared to general surgery (OR 12.8, 95% CI 4.8-40.8) and procedure sub-type (O-CPM: OR 0.03, 95% CI 0.002-0.16). In multivariate LR, the following variables were significantly associated with XRP use: hospital stay (OR 1.7; 95% CI 1.1-3.0), otolaryngology (OR 105; 95% CI 15.4-2193), O-CPM (OR 0.03; 95% CI 0.002-0.16), and E-CPM (OR 0.04, 95% CI 0.002-0.60). CONCLUSIONS: Prospective, multi-institutional studies are needed to confirm the low clinical utility we observed of early, postoperative XRP following hypopharyngeal surgery for dysphagia. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Laryngoscope, 132:272-277, 2022.

Safety and Predictors of 30-Day Adverse Events of Laryngeal Framework Surgery: An Analysis of ACS-NSQIP data.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To characterize and identify predictors of 30-day adverse events in patients undergoing laryngeal framework surgery (LFS). STUDY DESIGN: This study is a retrospective analysis of the National Surgical Quality Improvement dataset. METHODS: LFS cases were identified from the American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database from 2008 to 2018. Demographic variables, patient comorbidities, and perioperative outcomes (any adverse event, 30-day readmission, 30-day reoperation, and unplanned intubation) were extracted. Patient-specific and surgery-specific factors associated with perioperative adverse events were examined using descriptive statistics and univariate logistic regression (LR). RESULTS: Of 283 patients who underwent LFS, 225 underwent laryngoplasty medialization, 56 underwent laryngoplasty medialization with arytenoidectomy or arytenoidopexy via an external approach, and 2 underwent local myocutaneous or fasciocutaneous advancement flap along with laryngoplasty. Medical comorbidities were present in 33.6% of patients and 57.9% were American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Class III/IV (57.9%). LFS was performed as same-day surgery in 30.7% of cases. Fourteen patients (4.9%) suffered an adverse condition within 30 days following surgery. In univariate LR, ASA Class III or IV (odds ratio [OR] 4.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-30.1) was the only predictor associated with any adverse event. Arytenoid adduction (AA) was associated with increased risk of reoperation within 30 days of the initial surgery (OR 6.4, 95% CI 1.0-49). CONCLUSIONS: LFS is a generally safe procedure with infrequent perioperative adverse events. In the ACS-NSQIP database, ASA classification of III or IV was associated with a higher risk for any 30-day adverse event and AA was associated with a higher risk for 30-day reoperation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Laryngoscope, 132:1414-1420, 2022.

Are Spanish-Speaking Families Less Satisfied with Care in Pediatric Otolaryngology?

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Language barriers may impact family experience, which is a key measure of healthcare quality. We compared family satisfaction between Spanish-speaking families (SSF) and English-speaking families (ESF) in pediatric otolaryngology. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: Responses from the Family Experience Survey (FES), a hospital quality benchmarking survey, were analyzed from 2017 to 2019 at one academic pediatric otolaryngology practice. Question responses were compared between SSF versus ESF using mixed effect logistic regression models, adjusting for patient age, medical complexity, and insurance. RESULTS: A total of 4,964 FES survey responses were included (14% SSF). In multivariate analysis adjusting for age, medical complexity, and insurance, SSF were 1.7 times more likely than ESF to rate their provider with the highest rating (i.e. 9-10/10; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.24-2.22). However, SSF were less likely than ESF to provide the highest rating on many individual aspects of care, including whether providers explained things intelligibly (odds ratio [OR] 0.43, 95% CI 0.25-0.74), listened carefully (OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.28-0.47), knew their medical child's history (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.44-0.64), provided understandable information (OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.16-0.83), spent sufficient time with them (OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.31-0.48), allowed them to discuss their questions (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.47-0.70), or had enough input in their children's' care (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.26-0.80). CONCLUSIONS: In a large cohort of pediatric otolaryngology patients, SSF rated many individual aspects of their child's care less positively compared to ESF, despite rating their provider highly. Further research is needed to explore the reasons for these differences and how they can be improved. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Laryngoscope, 131:E2393-E2401, 2021.

A multi-institutional review of outcomes in biopsy-proven chronic invasive fungal sinusitis.

BACKGROUND: Chronic invasive fungal sinusitis (CIFS) is a rare, life-threatening infection of the nose and sinuses. This study aims to identify factors that impact survival in 1 of the largest cohorts to date. METHODS: Pathology records were reviewed for biopsy-proven CIFS from 3 tertiary academic institutions from 1995 to 2016. Variables were analyzed using log-rank survival analysis. Univariate Cox regression was performed at 1 and 12 months. RESULTS: Thirty-eight patients were included. Hematologic malignancy and diabetes were the most common underlying diseases (32% each). Aspergillus was the most common fungus (63%). Greater than 75% of the patients had an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) >1000 at the time of diagnosis. Overall survival at 1, 6, and 12 months was 89%, 68%, and 48%, respectively. In univariate analysis, factors associated with worse survival included: ANC <500 at 12 months (hazard ratio [HR] 4.8; p = 0.01), ANC <1000 at 12 months (HR 5.8; p = 0.001), and recent chemotherapy (HR 4; p = 0.01). The following factor was associated with improved survival in univariate analysis: ANC as a linear variable in the entire cohort (HR 0.7; p = 0.005). CONCLUSION: We present a multi-institutional case-series of CIFS and long-term follow-up. ANC <1000 at time of diagnosis and recent chemotherapy (within 1 month of diagnosis) are associated with poorer survival, whereas a rising ANC >1000 is associated with improved survival at 12 months. Further prospective studies are needed to further define factors that affect outcomes.

A multi-institutional review of outcomes in biopsy-proven acute invasive fungal sinusitis.

BACKGROUND: Acute invasive fungal sinusitis (AIFS) is a rare, aggressive infection occurring in immunocompromised patients. In this study we examined factors that affect survival in AIFS, and whether immune-stimulating therapies (IST) improve survival. METHODS: Pathology records of biopsy-proven AIFS were reviewed from 3 academic institutions from 1995 to 2016. Univariate and multivariate Cox regressions were performed at 1 and 3 months from diagnosis. RESULTS: One hundred fourteen patients were included; 45 received IST. In the univariate analysis, the following factors were associated with worse survival: hematologic malignancy (3-month hazard ratio [HR], 3.7; p = 0.01); recent chemotherapy (within 1 month of AIFS diagnosis) (3-month HR, 2.3; p = 0.02); recent bone marrow transplant (BMT) (3-month HR, 2.5; p = 0.02); and infection with atypical fungi (1-month HR, 3.1; p = 0.04). The following were associated with improved survival in univariate analysis: increasing A1c% (1-month HR, 0.7; p = 0.01) and surgical debridement (1-month HR, 0.1; p = 0.001). One third of patients with a hematologic malignancy had an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) >1000 at the time of diagnosis. ANC was not associated with prognosis in these patients. The following were associated with worse survival in multivariate analyses: hematologic malignancy; recent chemotherapy; atypical organisms; and cavernous sinus extension. In multivariate analyses, IST was associated with a 70% reduction in mortality at 1 month (p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: We presented the largest series of AIFS. Further studies are needed to examine the importance of ANC in diagnosis and prognosis. Patients diagnosed with atypical organisms may be at higher risk of death. IST likely improves short-term survival, but prospective studies are needed.

Knowledge and preferences concerning acute HIV testing programs among both Peruvian men who have sex with men and transgender women.

Immediate antiretroviral therapy (ART) for acute HIV infection (AHI) may decrease HIV transmission in high-risk populations. This study evaluated knowledge of AHI and AHI testing program preferences in Lima, Peru through four semi-structured focus groups with high-risk men who have sex with men (MSM) ( n = 20) and transgender women (TW) ( n = 16). Using content analysis, emergent themes included knowledge of AHI symptoms, AHI transmission potential, and the HIV testing window period, and preferences concerning point of care results. Participants demonstrated low familiarity with the term AHI, but many correctly identified AHI symptoms. However, these symptoms may not motivate testing because they overlap with common viral illnesses and AIDS. Some were aware that infectiousness is highest during AHI, and believe this knowledge would facilitate HIV testing. The shortened window period with AHI testing would encourage testing following high-risk sex. Delayed result notification would not decrease AHI testing demand among MSM, although it might for some TW.