[Tonsillotomy with the argon-supported monopolar needle--first clinical results].

Background: Primary management of tonsillar hyperplasia in children is tonsillectomy. Recent data from clinical case-series are clearly in support of the hypothesis that tonsillotomy with the CO2-laser seems to be effective and is noted to have less postoperative bleeding and less pain as compared to tonsillectomy. For the first time we used a monopolar argon-supported needle for tonsillotomy in the following study.

Tonsillar homing of Epstein-Barr virus-specific CD8+ T cells and the virus-host balance.

Patients with infectious mononucleosis (IM) undergoing primary EBV infection show large expansions of EBV-specific CD8+ T cells in the blood. While latent infection of the B cell pool is quickly controlled, virus shedding from lytically infected cells in the oropharynx remains high for several months. We therefore studied how responses localize to the tonsil, a major target site for EBV, during primary infection and persistence.

Acute respiratory failure after deep cervical plexus block for carotid endarterectomy as a result of bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis.

We report about a case of acute respiratory distress (73-year-old female), which occurred minutes after a deep cervical plexus block (40 ml ropivacaine 0.5%) for carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and required immediate endotracheal intubation of the patient's trachea and consecutive mechanical ventilation. Subsequently, CEA was performed under general anaesthesia (TIVA) with continuous monitoring by somatosensory-evoked potentials.

[Principals of high frequency surgery].

Electrosurgical instruments are routinely and daily applied at a variety of indications in Otorhinolaryngology. They can be used for cutting, coagulation and devitalisation. All have in common that the high frequency energy is transported into the tissue via an instrument and by this causes a thermal change.

[Effect of high frequency application on the tongue base. In vitro results of "radiofrequency application" on the porcine tongue base].

Background And Objective: A newly developed radio-frequency monopolar needle electrode was evaluated in vitro on porcine tongues.

Patients And Methods: Porcine tongues with different tissue temperatures (20+/-1) degrees C and (32+/-2) degrees C were coagulated for 90 s. In a second step, 23 coagulations at 7 W were applied (34+/-2) degrees C.