Technique for fabrication of splint preventing postsurgical restenosis in choanal atresia.

Choanal atresia, a congenital narrowing or obstruction of the nasal airway caused by significant respiratory distress in neonates, may require emergency intervention. Although atresia can be repaired surgically, restenosis is a common complication with this procedure. To prevent this, tubes are inserted into the nasal cavity immediately after surgery. This article describes a technique for preparing individual surgical splints designed to prevent postsurgical obstruction of the nasal cavity.

Bone conduction experiments in humans - a fluid pathway from bone to ear.

Animal experiments in this laboratory have led to the suggestion that a major pathway in bone conduction stimulation to the inner ear is via the skull contents (brain and CSF). This hypothesis was now tested in humans. Auditory nerve brainstem evoked responses could be recorded in neonates to bone conduction stimulation over the fontanelle and audiometric responses were obtained in neurosurgical patients with the bone vibrator on the skin over a craniotomy. There were no differences in threshold between these responses and those obtained to bone conduction stimulation over skull bone in the same subjects. Audiometric thresholds in response to bone vibrator stimulation of the eye (a 'natural craniotomy') were no different from those to bone stimulation delivered to several sites on the head. Thus there is no need to vibrate bone in order to obtain 'bone conduction' responses. Bone vibrator thresholds to stimulation at the head region with thinnest bone (temporal) were better than those to stimulation at the forehead region which has much thicker bone, implying that the vibrations penetrate the skull at the site of the vibrator. In addition, the magnitude of vibration (acceleration) measured at various sites around the head in response to bone vibrator stimulation at a fixed point on the forehead generally decreased with distance from the point of vibration. Therefore it seems that the vibrations produced by a bone vibrator at a point on the head are also able to penetrate the skull, setting up audio-frequency pressures in the CSF which spread by fluid communications to the inner ear fluids, exciting the ear.

Serum insulin-like growth factors I and II are not affected by undernutrition in children with nonorganic failure to thrive.

The aim of our study was to determine the serum levels of IGF-I, IGF-II, and their binding proteins IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-3 in young children 3 months to 2 years of age with nonorganic failure to thrive (NOFTT). 29 children with NOFTT and 32 normal controls were recruited and studied for auxologic and hormonal parameters. The NOFTT group had significantly higher serum concentrations of IGFBP-1 than the control group: 57.7+/-18 vs. 48+/-19 microg/l (p < 0.05). IGF-I and IGF-II serum levels were highly correlated to serum IGFBP-3 but there were no differences in the serum IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 levels between the groups. We conclude that IGF-I, IGF-II, and IGFBP-3 are not useful for the evaluation of nutritional status in children, under the age of 2 years, with NOFTT.