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Biomedical subjects

M Z Effron

Publications and source records attributed to M Z Effron.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

Advanced carcinoma of the tongue. Management by total glossectomy without laryngectomy.

A major goal of any surgical program for patients with tumors is to cure their cancer. Patients requiring total glossectomy usually are seen initially with far-advanced disease, often after failure of other treatment modalities. As a result, they may be suffering from constant pain as well impairment of speech and deglutition. The prognosis is poor, and palliative surgery with good rehabilitation of the speaking and swallowing mechanisms becomes a reasonable, albeit limited, objective. Our series does show that properly selected patients can be successfully rehabilitated after total glossectomy with out laryngectomy. This successful rehabilitation begins with good patient selection and preoperative preparation. Postoperative rehabilitation requires the interplay of a highly motivated patient and a well-coordinated health care team. The physician, nurse, speech pathologist, dietitian, and social worker all have important roles in ensuring the patient's return to a good quality of life. The surgeon will direct the efforts of the team. To the nurse and the speech pathologist falls much of the bedside job of instructing and motivating the patient. Because such effective rehabilitation has been demonstrated by the success of our patients, we advocate preserving the larynx whenever possible in the patient who must undergo total glossectomy.

Carcinoma↗

Microbiology of chronic and recurrent otitis media with effusion in young infants.

Chronic otitis media with effusion (OME) has been assumed to be sterile, since several reports in the literature have described unsuccessful attempts to culture bacteria from it. However, several recent studies have confirmed an earlier report that there is a significant frequency of bacteria in the middle ears of children with chronic and/or recurrent OME. Similar studies in young infants with chronic and/or recurrent OME have not been previously reported. In this study, cultures were obtained at the time of myringotomy and tympanostomy tube insertion from 50 infants aged 1-12 months who had chronic and/or recurrent OME. From the 80 ears of 40 infants without cleft palate, 32% had bacteria isolated from their middle ears; 22% had Streptococcus pneumoniae or Haemophilus influenzae. In 21 of these ears, no effusion was apparent at myringotomy, but in 28% bacteria were isolated from middle ear washings. From the 20 ears of 10 infants with an unrepaired cleft palate, 55% had bacteria present in their middle ear aspirates; 50% had S. pneumoniae or H. influenzae. Even though the significance of bacteria in chronic OME in children, and now in young infants, is unclear at present, a therapeutic trial with an antimicrobial agent prior to surgical intervention would appear to be reasonable until such therapy is tested in a randomized, clinical trial.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Nasal polyps in children.

The inflammatory nasal polyp is the most common benign or malignant nasal mass seen in children. Nasal polyps in the pediatric population appear to occur as inflammatory responses to bacterial infections. In 33% of the patients with polyps whom we studied, antral choanal polyps were noted, and in 20% of the patients the polyps were unilateral but not antral choanal. In 18% of the patients the polyps were bilateral and in an additional 29% they occurred bilaterally in association with cystic fibrosis. History of an allergy is infrequently associated with nasal polyps; allergies are potentially major contributing factors to nasal polyps only in patients without cystic fibrosis whose nasal polyps are bilateral. Patients with antral choanal polyps are most successfully managed by simultaneous Caldwell-Luc antrostomy and polypectomy. Sixty percent of patients with nasal polyps and cystic fibrosis are adequately managed with a single intranasal polypectomy. Simultaneous sinus surgery and polypectomy should be considered for all patients with recurrent polyps and for all patients with clinical or radiographic evidence of significant sinusitis. Complications, including epistaxis and intranasal synechia, occurred in 3% of the 170 surgical procedures performed.

Adolescent↗

Diagnosis and management of drop attacks of vestibular origin: Tumarkin's otolithic crisis.

Erroneous signals of vestibular origin can cause sudden falls without warning. Drop attacks of vestibular origin in our experience most commonly occurred in patients with late or end-stage endolymphatic hydrops (usually idiopathic, ie, Meniere's disease). Eponymically termed Tumarkin's otolithic crisis, drop attacks of vestibular origin must be distinguished from drop attacks due to cardiovascular abnormalities, seizure disorders, vertebral basilar arterial insufficiency (transitory brain stem ischemia), multiple sclerosis, and drug-induced motor control disturbances. The treatment of choice for drop attacks of vestibular origin is either surgical ablation (labyrinthectomy) in the absence of serviceable hearing or middle fossa vestibular nerve section in order to preserve serviceable hearing.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗

Vestibular ototoxicity of prophylactic aminoglycoside antibiotics in head and neck cancer patients.

The effect of prophylactic aminoglycoside antibiotics upon vestibular function was studied using a double-blind protocol in a group of head and neck cancer patients scheduled for contaminated (skin-to-mucosa) surgical procedures. The amplitude (gain) of vestibular responses to rotation temporarily declined in 12 of 25 patients postoperatively. There was no correlation between temporary decline in vestibular response and administration of gentamicin, clindamycin, and cefazolin. After a recovery period of one to three months, none of the patients showed evidence of vestibular aminoglycoside ototoxicity. The transient reduction in vestibular responses to rotary stimuli was possibly related to the use of analgesics, anesthetic agents, or radical neck dissection procedures. The importance of repeat measures and proper timing of vestibular ototoxic monitoring procedures in a surgical patient population was demonstrated by this study. Results of this study may also impact interpretation of findings from certain surgical procedures performed for control of vertigo.

Aminoglycosides↗