Effects of tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy on hemoglobin and iron metabolism.

Objectives: To investigate a possible effect of adenoidectomy, tonsillectomy, or both operations combined in children on hemoglobin concentration and iron metabolism.

Methods: Children eligible for surgery due to recurrent tonsillitis or upper airway obstruction had a venous blood sample drawn at the time of the operation and 6 months later. One hundred and three preoperative and 91 blood samples at follow-up from patients not given iron supplementation were available for analysis of hemoglobin concentration, serum-ferritin and protoporphyrin-IX in erythrocytes.

[Diagnosis and surgical treatment of liquorrhea].

Background: Liquorrhea caused by cerebrospinal fluid fistula may lead to meningitis and should be treated surgically. The diagnostic approach and the surgery may be difficult and improvements are needed.

Material And Methods: We present two cases of liquorrhea.

[Early diagnosis of deafness and severe hearing loss].

Background: Universal neonatal hearing screening can now be done by practical application of hearing physiology and automated techniques for registration of otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem responses.

Material And Methods: This review gives the theoretical and practical background for implementation of neonatal hearing screening in Norway.

Results: With the diagnostic methods used up to now, age at diagnosis of permanent hearing loss and start of habilitation has not been lowered during the last decades.

[Cost effective and quality assured (adeno)tonsillectomy in children].

Background: The issues of whether minor surgery should be performed in private or public clinics and/or be funded by the national health service are under continuous debate in Norway.

Material And Methods: A prospective study of the benefit of (adeno)tonsillectomies in 120 children is presented. Surgery included in the study was performed on an inpatient as well as an outpatient basis and in public as well as private clinics.

[Thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy].

Thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy is a local autoimmune reaction in the orbit. Typical signs are retraction of the eyelid, periorbital oedema, proptosis and impaired eye motility. Exposure keratopathy or compression of the optic nerve may be a complication.

[Facial fractures. A life style disease among young men?].

Interpersonal violence is often initiated by offensive verbal and visual expressions. Physical violence will therefore often be directed towards the face of the opponent. A retrospective analysis of 1,273 maxillofacial fractures at the University Hospital in Tromsø during the period 1987-95 showed a steady occurrence of cases.

[Leakage of cerebrospinal fluid. Diagnosis and treatment].

Leakage of cerebrospinal fluid may occur after fracture of the skull base or after surgery on the skull base, nose, or paranasal sinuses. Further causes of cerebrospinal fluid leakage are tumours and malformations. It may also occur spontaneously.

Identification of a new locus for autosomal dominant non-syndromic hearing impairment (DFNA7) in a large Norwegian family.

Hereditary hearing impairment affects about 1 in 1000 newborns. In most cases hearing loss is non-syndromic with no other clinical features, while in other families deafness is associated with specific clinical abnormalities. Analysis of large families with non-syndromic and syndromic deafness have been used to identify genes or gene locations that cause hearing impairment.

[Sensitivity to acetylsalicylic acid].

Because of its ability of prevent platelet aggregation, the use of aspirin in Norway is rising abruptly, after some years of fairly low consumption. The author reviews of aspirin-sensitivity, including chronic rhinosinusitis, nasal polyposis and corticosteroid-dependent asthma. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have widespread cross-reactions with aspirin, while azo-dyes and food preservatives may induce a similar chronic inflammation of the airways.

[Laryngomalacia--endoscopic microsurgical treatment].

Laryngomalacia is caused by inspiratory collapse of the supraglottic structures in babies. This predominant cause of stridor in the first years of life has a graded occurrence from an insignificant sound phenomenon to insufficient alveolar ventilation with possible serious complications and development of dystrophy. The laryngomalacia must be sub-classified by direct laryngoscopy with a flexible endoscope under spontaneous respiration.

Facial palsy and partial accommodative insufficiency associated with sulphasalazine treatment in a patient with ankylosing spondylitis.

We report on a patient with peripheral facial nerve palsy and blurred near vision in association with sulphasalazine treatment. The possibility of this being an adverse reaction to sulphasalazine is discussed.

Acute orbit from ethmoiditis drained by endoscopic sinus surgery.

Orbital complications from sinusitis are briefly reviewed. Acute orbit is suggested as the common term for all stages in the development. Four patients with acute orbit and ethmoiditis are presented.

Audiologic findings in a family with mitochondrial disorder.

Mitochondrial disorder is an inborn error of metabolism affecting the cellular respiratory chain. Defective energy production leads to a wide variety of clinical manifestations (ataxia, epilepsy, dementia, myopathy, polyneuropathy, retinal pigment anomalies, and cardiomyopathy with conduction anomalies). Hearing loss is a regular feature and is often the first clinical symptom.