Functional endoscopic sinus surgery improves the quality of life in children suffering from chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of FESS in children with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps, regarding their overall postoperative quality-of-life (QoL) and constituent QoL domains. Potential differences between cystic fibrosis (CF) sufferers and non-sufferers, or cases with recurrent sinonasal polyposis versus single-operations were also explored.

Methods: 39 children were studied.

Functional endoscopic sinus surgery improves sinus-related symptoms and quality of life in children with chronic rhinosinusitis: a systematic analysis and meta-analysis of published interventional studies.

Aim: To assess the current knowledge and evaluate the quality of evidence in the use of FESS for the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis in children, regarding the respective changes in the quality-of-their-life (QoL) and the outcome that follows the operation.

Materials/methods: Systematic literature review in Medline and other database sources and meta-analysis of pooled data.

Results: 15 studies were systematically analyzed.

Intratympanic steroid treatment in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss: a control study.

Background And Objective: Although systemic steroids in sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) appears to be the most effective and the most widely accepted treatment today, a significant number of patients do not respond to steroid treatment or they cannot receive steroids for medical reasons. Intratympanic (IT) administration of steroids appears to be an alternative or additional method of management without the side effects of intravenous steroids. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness and safeness of IT administration of steroids in patients who had not responded to IV treatment and to compare treatment efficacy with controls.

Cyclin D1 protein tissue detection in laryngeal cancer.

Cyclin D1 (CCND1) is a set of periodic regulatory proteins that is believed to govern cell cycle transit from G1 into S phase. Overexpression of CCND1 leads to abnormal cellular proliferation which underlies processes of tumorigenesis; CCND1 can thus function as a cooperative oncogene in cell transformation. In the present study we investigate the immunohistochemical expression of CCND1 in a well-documented series of 58 laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas (LSCC) and search for statistical associations between CCND1 index and various clinicopathological parameters including several immunomarkers' expression as well as patients' disease-free survival.

Professor Nicolas Taptas (1871-1955): a pioneer of post-laryngectomy voice rehabilitation.

Objective: To report on the career of Professor Nicolas Taptas of Constantinople (1871-1955) and his contribution to the development of an artificial larynx.

Study Design: Historical review.

Methods: The unpublished documents of Taptas's family archives and one of his papers, describing his own original technique for voice rehabilitation after total laryngectomies, were studied.

From the roots of rhinology: the reconstruction of nasal injuries by Hippocrates.

The goal of this report is to describe the therapeutic methods and surgical techniques used by Hippocrates (5th century BC) in the treatment of nasal injuries. We studied the original Greek texts of the (generally considered genuine) Hippocratic book Mochlicon and, especially, the analytical On Joints. We identified the treatments and techniques applied to the restoration of injured noses.

The role of diet and specific micronutrients in the etiology of oral carcinoma.

Background: Carcinoma of the oral cavity is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Tobacco smoking and the consumption of alcoholic beverages are significant risk factors but to the authors' knowledge the role of nutrition is not adequately understood. The authors undertook an epidemiologic study of oral carcinoma occurring in Greece, where tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption are common but the incidence of the disease is among the lowest reported in Europe.

Interaction between a single nucleotide polymorphism in the alcohol dehydrogenase 3 gene, alcohol consumption and oral cancer risk.

We investigated effects on oral cancer (OC) risk of an interaction between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the alcohol dehydrogenase 3 (ADH3) gene and alcohol consumption levels using a hospital-based study of 93 cases and 99 controls conducted in Athens, Greece. This SNP affects ethanol metabolism in vitro and appeared to interact with alcohol consumption in a previous OC study. We also evaluated a SNP in CYP2E1, another gene involved in ethanol metabolism, reported to be associated with OC risk in a European population.