[MEDCARE for People in Eritrea : A report on 9 years' help through self-help].

The current article is an experience report on the establishment of an ENT clinic in Asmara/Eritrea and the organization of regular work stays for the further education of local colleagues. Objectives of the project are content and structural support for self-help and thus achievement of sustainable development aid, which benefits both the medical development of the country and the care of the local patients.

Modifications of the midline mandibulotomy for access to the parapharyngeal space.

When considering a mandibular osteotomy for access to resect a parapharyngeal neoplasm, the following goals should be considered: preservation of the facial nerve, complete removal of the neoplasm without tumor rupture, maintenance of the preoperative teeth occlusion, acceptable temporomandibular joint function, functional preservation of the inferior alveolar nerve sensation, and satisfying aesthetic results. We propose a modified median osteotomy technique, which combines the advantages of sufficient exposition of the tumor with very good functional and aesthetic results. A case series of nine patients suffering from extended pleomorphic adenomas of the inner lobe of the parotid gland is presented.

Prognostic index for patients with parotid carcinoma: international external validation in a Belgian-German database.

Background: Prognostic indices for recurrence-free interval in patients with parotid carcinoma were developed and validated in a nationwide database. International validation would increase generalizability.

Methods: In a Belgian-German database that contained 237 consecutive patients with parotid carcinoma, a pretreatment prognostic index (PS1) and a post-treatment prognostic index (PS2) were validated by calculating both indices for each patient, comparing coefficients, constructing survival curves, calculating the concordance measure C, and performing Wald tests for scale and weight optimization of included variables and for the possible inclusion of new variables.

In vitro culturing of porcine tracheal mucosa as an ideal model for investigating the influence of drugs on human respiratory mucosa.

It has been previously shown that fresh mucosa from different mammals could serve as raw material for in vitro culturing with the differentiation of cilia, which are the most important morphological structures for the function of the mucociliary system. Increasing legal restrictions on the removal of human tissue and changing surgical techniques have led to a lack of fresh human mucosa for culturing. Most of the animals that have been used as donors up to now are genetically not very close to human beings and must all be sacrificed for such studies.

[The influence of different alpha-sympathomimetic drugs and benzalkoniumchlorid on the ciliary beat frequency of in vitro cultured human nasal mucosa cells].

Background: An appropriate in-vitro model of the human nasal mucosa was developed, which allowed to measure the influence of different pharmaceutical substances on the ciliary beat frequency (CBF) under standardized conditions.

Method: The present study describes the effect of the alpha-sympathomimetic drugs naphazolin, xylometazolin and oxymetazolin as pure substances and the preservative Benzalkonium chloride in rising concentrations on the CBF. For these investigations human cells of the human nasal mucosa were cultured, which exhibited a high constancy during the equilibration measurements over at least 200 minutes.