Chondroblastoma-like mass of the temporal bone, secondary aneurysmal bone cyst, and intracerebral hemorrhage in a patient with cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome: case report.

Cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome (CFCS) is a rare developmental disorder that is phenotypically similar to Noonan syndrome and is associated with mutations in BRAF, MEK1, MEK2, and KRAS. The relationship between malignancy risk and CFCS is unclear with few cases published in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to describe the case of a patient with CFCS presenting in extremis as a result of a large intracerebral hemorrhage arising from a temporal bone mass with histopathology most consistent with chondroblastoma and secondary aneurysmal bone cyst.

Fluorescence Imaging of Nerves During Surgery.

Objective: This review details the agents for fluorescence-guided nerve imaging in both preclinical and clinical use to identify factors important in selecting nerve-specific fluorescent agents for surgical procedures.

Background: Iatrogenic nerve injury remains a significant cause of morbidity in patients undergoing surgical procedures. Current real-time identification of nerves during surgery involves neurophysiologic nerve stimulation, which has practical limitations.

The Cleating Stitch: An Adjunctive Technique for Percutaneous and Revision Osseointegration Screws.

Objective: The bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) has become a widely used and successful option in treatment of conductive and mixed hearing loss, and single sided deafness. Despite improvements in technique and cosmesis, complications remain that can result in implant revision or removal. Herein we describe a unique adjunctive technique, the cleating stitch, in placement of osseointegration screws and examine its impact on complication rates.

Koos Classification of Vestibular Schwannomas: A Reliability Study.

Background: The Koos classification of vestibular schwannomas is designed to stratify tumors based on extrameatal extension and compression of the brainstem. While this classification system is widely reported in the literature, to date no study has assessed its reliability.

Objective: To assess the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the Koos classification system.

Current practices in vestibular schwannoma management: a survey of American and Canadian neurosurgeons.

Objectives: Comprehensive therapy for vestibular schwannomas has changed dramatically over the past fifty years. Previously, neurosurgeons were most likely to treat these tumors via an independent surgical approach. Currently, many neurosurgeons treat vestibular schwannomas employing an interdisciplinary team approach with neuro-otologists and radiation oncologists.

Outcomes following temporal bone resection.

Objectives/hypothesis: To evaluate survival outcomes in patients undergoing temporal bone resection.

Study Design: Retrospective review.

Methods: From 2002 to 2009 a total of 65 patients underwent temporal bone resection for epithelial (n = 47) and salivary (n = 18) skull base malignancies.

Evolution of a paradigm for free tissue transfer reconstruction of lateral temporal bone defects.

Background: Tumors of the lateral skull base are best treated with surgery plus or minus radiation therapy. Surgical ablation may involve cutaneous structures, the auricle, the parotid, and the lateral temporal bone. These composite soft tissue defects are best reconstructed with composite tissue.

Pretreatment, preoperative swallowing exercises may improve dysphagia quality of life.

Objectives: Dysphagia is commonly associated with head and neck cancer treatment. Traditional dysphagia management strategies focus on post-treatment therapy. This study evaluated the utility of pretreatment swallowing exercises in improving post-treatment swallowing quality of life (QOL).

Lateral skull base malignancies.

Object: Historically poor outcomes have been characteristic in patients with lateral skull base malignancies. As advances in skull base surgical techniques have been made, complete resection has increasingly been achieved. This has resulted in improved survival rates and local tumor control.

Impact of mastoidectomy on simple tympanic membrane perforation repair.

Objectives/hypothesis: Mastoidectomy has long been identified as an effective method of treatment for chronic ear infection. The effect of mastoidectomy on patients without evidence of active infectious disease remains highly debated and unproven. The objective in the study was to examine the impact of mastoidectomy on the repair of uncomplicated tympanic membrane perforations.

Reconstruction of the entire ossicular conduction mechanism.

Objectives/hypothesis: Stapes fixation combined with fixation, absence, or malformation of the malleus-incus complex requires an uncommon surgical reconstruction and offers a unique combination of challenges and hazards. This situation may occur in the presence of severe tympanosclerosis, otosclerosis, congenital ossicular malformations, and revision surgery for either stapedectomy or chronic ear disease. In previous reports, this procedure has been grouped with total ossicular reconstruction without much distinction.