Comparison of outcomes and cost in patients undergoing tonsillectomy with electrocautery and thermal welding.

Purpose: To assess the morbidity and efficacy of thermal tissue welder instrument for tonsillectomy and compare it with monopolar electrocautery.

Materials And Methods: IRB approval was obtained at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University for a prospective, randomized, single-blinded, controlled clinical study of 48 healthy adult volunteers undergoing tonsillectomy for chronic tonsillitis and tonsil hypertrophy. Subjects were randomized to the TW or EC group.

Thymoma and parathyroid adenoma: false-positive imaging and intriguing laboratory test results.

Importance: Parathyroid hormone (PTH)-secreting thymomas are an exceedingly rare entity. A PTH-secreting thymoma was discovered in the workup of a patient with primary hyperparathyroidism. A concomitant parathyroid adenoma was removed from the same patient.

Conservative management of iatrogenic membranous tracheal wall injury: a discussion of 2 successful pediatric cases.

Importance: Management of pediatric tracheal injuries is a controversial topic not well documented in the otolaryngology literature.

Objectives: To present our case outcomes in 2 pediatric patients with tracheal injury and to review the literature on surgical vs conservative management of tracheal injuries in the pediatric age group.

Design: Case series and literature review.

A comparison of new and existing mild traumatic brain injury vignettes: recommendations for research into post-concussion syndrome.

Objective: To review and compare the mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) vignettes used in postconcussion syndrome (PCS) research, and to develop 3 new vignettes.

Method: The new vignettes were devised using World Health Organization (WHO) mTBI diagnostic criteria [1]. Each vignette depicted a very mild (VM), mild (M), or severe (S) brain injury.

Young drivers' optimism bias for accident risk and driving skill: Accountability and insight experience manipulations.

This study aimed to determine whether two brief, low cost interventions would reduce young drivers' optimism bias for their driving skills and accident risk perceptions. This tendency for such drivers to perceive themselves as more skillful and less prone to driving accidents than their peers may lead to less engagement in precautionary driving behaviours and a greater engagement in more dangerous driving behaviour. 243 young drivers (aged 17-25 years) were randomly allocated to one of three groups: accountability, insight or control.