Long-term functional and quality of life evaluation after treatment for advanced pharyngolaryngeal carcinoma.

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare total laryngectomy versus concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for functional and long-term quality of life (QOL) outcomes in patients with pharyngolaryngeal carcinoma.

Methods: Among 145 patients treated for advanced pharyngolaryngeal cancer by CRT or total laryngectomy between 2000 and 2008, 47 patients who had completed treatment for >1 year and were determined to be disease-free were evaluated for function and QOL using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30-questions (EORTC-QLQ-C30).

Results: No significant difference was observed between the total laryngectomy group (26 patients) and the CRT group (21 patients) concerning feeding tube (p = .

Pattern of lateral neck metastases in N0 papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Background: Indication and extent of lateral prophylactic neck dissection (PLND) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is very controversial.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed 131 patients who underwent thyroidectomy and prophylactic lateral neck dissection from level II to V for PTC.

Results: 140 PLND were performed.

[Mandibular reconstruction for the treatment of oral carcinomas: state of the art and perspectives].

Introduction: Mandibular reconstruction in head and neck oncology uses a number of techniques whose results are inconsistent and whose indications do not benefit from consensus.

Materials And Methods: A review of the literature allowed us to assemble the available knowledge on current mandibular reconstruction techniques, their functional results, and the research perspectives.

Results And Discussion: Marginal resections lead to dental rehabilitation problems, which can be palliated by alveolar enhancement techniques but whose results have not been validated in cases subjected to irradiation.

[Parapharyngeal tumors: diagnosis and treatment].

Objectives: Parapharyngeal space tumors are rare and usually benign. Their treatment is surgical and many approaches have been described. We report our experience in managing these neoplasms.

[Neck dissection for stage N0 oral cavity carcinoma].

Objectives: The management of N0 neck remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of selective neck dissection (SND) in managing N0 neck of oral cavity carcinomas.

Material And Methods: A retrospective chart review of 77 previously untreated patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity with N0 neck from 1988 to 2001 was performed.

[Treatments of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia of the nasal mucosa].

Unlabelled: Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia is a systemic autosomal dominant disorder involving blood vessels. The most common symptom is recurrent epistaxis. The treatments of these epistaxis are numerous but such treatments are often symptomatic and their effects are often not sustained.

[Myospherulosis of the maxillary sinus].

Background: We present a case of a myospherulosis, describe the underlying cause and discuss ways of preventing its development.

Case Report: A 35-year-old man presented myospherulosis of the maxillary sinus caused by an antibiotic ointment placed in the sinus three years earlier during a Caldwell Luc procedure. The patient underwent a second Calwell Luc procedure.

[Exercise-induced laryngomalacia].

Exercise-induced laryngomalacia is a rare differential diagnosis of exercise-induced asthma. We report the case of a previously fit 14-year-old female patient who presented with dyspnoea on intense exertion and whose condition had not improved with treatment prescribed for a misdiagnosed exercise-induced asthma. A diagnosis of exercise-induced laryngomalacia was eventually made when a variable extra-thoracic airway obstruction on the flow-volume loops was obtained after an incremental exercise test.

Complete cervical tracheal rupture in children after closed trauma.

The authors report the case of a 5-year-old boy who received a blow from a heavy metallic bar on the front of the neck and presented with a complete rupture of the cervical trachea. Such a rupture is exceptional in children because of the consistency of the cartilage but can occur when the neck is in extension and the glottis is closed. A rigid endoscopy allowed the rupture to be diagnosed, to restore the airway, to prepare the cervicotomy, and the suturing of the trachea.

The visual word form area: a prelexical representation of visual words in the fusiform gyrus.

Event-related fMRI was used to test the hypothesis that the visual word form area in the left fusiform gyrus holds a modality-specific and prelexical representation of visual words. Subjects were engaged in a repetition-detection task on pairs of words or pronounceable pseudo-words that could be written or spoken. The visual word form area responded only to written stimuli, not to spoken stimuli, independently of their semantic content.

[Inflammation and seromucous otitis].

Unlabelled: 1. AN IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP: There is a strong relationship between tubular dysfunction, tympanic depression and effusion of the tympanic cavity. 2.

Distinct cortical areas for names of numbers and body parts independent of language and input modality.

Some models of word comprehension postulate that the processing of words presented in different modalities and languages ultimately converges toward common cerebral systems associated with semantic-level processing and that the localization of these systems may vary with the category of semantic knowledge being accessed. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate this hypothesis with two categories of words, numerals, and body parts, for which the existence of distinct category-specific areas is debated in neuropsychology. Across two experiments, one with a blocked design and the other with an event-related design, a reproducible set of left-hemispheric parietal and prefrontal areas showed greater activation during the manipulation of topographical knowledge about body parts and a right-hemispheric parietal network during the manipulation of numerical quantities.

Pituitary adenomas with infra-sellar extension into the nasopharynx.

Three cases of pituitary adenomas with infra-sellar extension into the nasopharynx and the nasal cavities are reported. The clinical signs were epistaxis, nasal obstruction, painful sinuses and purulent rhinorrhoea. The initial diagnostic hypothesis was that of a carcinoma of the nasopharynx or the sinuses in all three cases.

[Long-term results of swallowing after horizontal sub-glottic laryngectomy].

This is a retrospective study of 80 patients who have had a horizontal subglottic laryngectomy. The functional results were assessed by means of clinical findings at follow-up and a questionnaire. The mean time to decannulation was 32 days, and to removal of the nasogastric tube 25 days.

Event-related fMRI analysis of the cerebral circuit for number comparison.

Cerebral activity during number comparison was studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging using an event-related design. We identified an extended network of task-related areas that showed a phasic activation following each trial, including anterior cingulate, bilateral sensorimotor areas, inferior occipito-temporal cortices, posterior parietal cortices, inferior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, and thalami. We then tested which of these areas were affected by number notation, numerical distance and response side, three variables that specifically target processes of visual identification, quantity manipulation and motor response in a serial-stage model of the number comparison task.

Primary aspergillosis of the larynx and squamous cell carcinoma.

Primary laryngeal aspergillosis is exceptionally rare, and only five cases have been reported in the literature. We present here two cases of invasive laryngeal aspergillosis without tracheobronchopulmonary extension and without any generalized immune deficit. Aspergillosis developed after local radiotherapy for a squamous cell carcinoma and preceded a recurrence of the tumor.

Imaging unconscious semantic priming.

Visual words that are masked and presented so briefly that they cannot be seen may nevertheless facilitate the subsequent processing of related words, a phenomenon called masked priming. It has been debated whether masked primes can activate cognitive processes without gaining access to consciousness. Here we use a combination of behavioural and brain-imaging techniques to estimate the depth of processing of masked numerical primes.