Publications by authors named "Alanna Windsor"

Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess diagnostic trends in dizziness and imbalance in both pediatric and adult patients receiving multidisciplinary evaluations at a hospital from 2017 to 2020.
  • A total of 1,934 patients, predominantly females, were reviewed, revealing that most were assigned a pathologic diagnosis, with central causes of dizziness more common in younger patients and peripheral disorders like BPPV and Meniere's disease more prevalent in older patients.
  • The findings highlight the variability of vestibular disorders across different age groups, with conditions such as vestibular migraine being frequent in younger patients and an increase in peripheral vestibular disorders as patients age.
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Objective: Pediatric tracheostomy is associated with high morbidity and mortality, yet clinician knowledge and quality of tracheostomy care may vary widely. In situ simulation is effective at detecting and mitigating related latent safety threats, but evaluation via retrospective video review has disadvantages (eg, delayed analysis, and potential data loss). We evaluated whether a novel mobile application is accurate and reliable for assessment of in situ tracheostomy emergency simulations.

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Objective: Although ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (oVEMP) abnormalities have been associated with vestibular migraine (VM) in adults, no studies have evaluated this in pediatric patients with VM. oVEMP asymmetry with normal cervical VEMP (cVEMP) findings may be a reliable VM biomarker in adults. We characterize VEMP results among pediatric patients with VM and benign recurrent vertigo of childhood (BRVC), a migraine precursor, and compare these results with VEMP findings from pediatric patients with nonmigrainous vestibular diagnoses.

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Post-operative hemorrhage is a potentially life-threatening complication of tonsillectomy. While standard surgical maneuvers including the use of electrocautery, application of topical hemostatic agents, direct pressure, and suturing of the tonsillar pillars have traditionally been used for the treatment of severe bleeding, endovascular approaches are an important adjunct when other techniques are unsuccessful. Here, we describe the case of a 10-year-old female who presented with severe bleeding four days after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy for chronic tonsillitis.

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Introduction: Infants with bilateral vocal fold paralysis (BVFP) can present with stridor and respiratory distress necessitating tracheostomy. The endoscopic anterior-posterior cricoid split (APCS) with balloon dilation procedure has been described as an alternative to tracheostomy in these patients. Here, we report our institution's preliminary experience with APCS and evaluate patient factors that may predispose to the success or failure of this procedure in infants with BVFP.

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Objectives: Many infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) require prolonged periods of respiratory support. Microlaryngoscopy and bronchoscopy (MLB) is performed to evaluate for airway pathology and facilitate decision-making regarding further airway interventions or tracheostomy. The objectives of this study are to describe the operative findings of MLB performed on infants in the NICU and determine which pre-operative characteristics or operative findings are predictive of the need for tracheostomy.

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Congenital external auditory canal stenosis (EACS) is a spectrum of abnormalities affecting the external and middle ear. We report a 6 year-old patient with EACS affecting the lateral fibrocartilaginous canal that was successfully repaired. This patient highlights a variant of EACS characterized by lateral soft tissue narrowing with normal osseous development.

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Hair cells tightly control the dimensions of their stereocilia, which are actin-rich protrusions with graded heights that mediate mechanotransduction in the inner ear. Two members of the myosin-III family, MYO3A and MYO3B, are thought to regulate stereocilia length by transporting cargos that control actin polymerization at stereocilia tips. We show that eliminating espin-1 (ESPN-1), an isoform of ESPN and a myosin-III cargo, dramatically alters the slope of the stereocilia staircase in a subset of hair cells.

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A broad spectrum of congenital upper airway anomalies can occur as a result of errors during embryologic development. In this review, we will describe the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management strategies for a few select, rare congenital malformations of this system. The diagnostic tools used in workup of these disorders range from prenatal tests to radiological imaging, swallowing evaluations, indirect or direct laryngoscopy, and rigid bronchoscopy.

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Superior canal dehiscence (SCD) is caused by an absence of bony covering of the arcuate eminence or posteromedial aspect of the superior semicircular canal. However, the clinical presentation of SCD syndrome varies considerably, as some SCD patients are asymptomatic and others have auditory and/or vestibular complaints. In order to determine the basis for these observations, we examined the association between SCD length and location with: (1) auditory and vestibular signs and symptoms; (2) air conduction (AC) loss and air-bone gap (ABG) measured by pure-tone audiometric testing, and (3) cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) thresholds.

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Olivocochlear (OC) neurons respond to sound and provide descending input that controls processing in the cochlea. The identities of neurons in the pathways providing inputs to OC neurons are incompletely understood. To explore these pathways, the retrograde transneuronal tracer pseudorabies virus (Bartha strain, expressing green fluorescent protein) was used to label OC neurons and their inputs in guinea pigs.

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The middle ear muscle (MEM) reflex is one of two major descending systems to the auditory periphery. There are two middle ear muscles (MEMs): the stapedius and the tensor tympani. In man, the stapedius contracts in response to intense low frequency acoustic stimuli, exerting forces perpendicular to the stapes superstructure, increasing middle ear impedance and attenuating the intensity of sound energy reaching the inner ear (cochlea).

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