Evaluation of prednisolone and prednisolone sodium succinate concentrations in human plasma and inner ear perilymph during cochlear implantation 24 h after intratympanic injection.

Background: The use of intratympanic (IT) steroids has drastically increased over the past 10-15 years to manage many otological pathologies.

Objectives: This study aimed to compare the concentrations of prednisolone and prednisolone sodium succinate (SS) in the plasma and inner ear perilymph of participants who underwent cochlear implantation 24 h after IT injection.

Materials And Methods: It was a prospective comparative randomized study.

The Prevalence of Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency in Meniere Disease: 24-Month Follow-up after Angioplasty.

Purpose: To evaluate relationship between Meniere disease (MD) and chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) using ultrasound, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and venography and to evaluate the effectiveness of angioplasty of the internal jugular vein (IJV) and azygos vein (AV) in reducing symptoms of MD.

Materials And Methods: Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of MD unresponsive to standard treatment underwent duplex ultrasound and MR imaging to diagnose CCSVI. Healthy volunteers were also studied to evaluate CCSVI in asymptomatic subjects.

Does age influence the success of intra-tympanic steroid treatment in idiopathic sudden deafness?

Conclusions: The present study shows that AGE, DELAY, and PTA_PRE may be considered factors influencing therapeutic success in intra-tympanic steroid therapy.

Objective: The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between the therapeutic success of intra-tympanic prednisolone therapy and age, in patients affected by idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL), considering the influence of factors such as delay, gender, and pure tone average (PTA) pre-therapy.

Method: This retrospective study involved 402 consecutive patients, affected by unilateral ISSNHL between January 2009 and January 2014.

Immunohistochemical profile of cytokines and growth factors expressed in vestibular schwannoma and in normal vestibular nerve tissue.

Vestibular schwannomas, also known as acoustic neuromas, are benign tumors, which originate from myelin-forming Schwann cells. They develop in the vestibular branch of the eighth cranial nerve in the internal auditory canal or cerebellopontine angle. The clinical progression of the condition involves slow and progressive growth, eventually resulting in brainstem compression.

Bell's palsy: symptoms preceding and accompanying the facial paresis.

This individual prospective cohort study aims to report and analyze the symptoms preceding and accompanying the facial paresis in Bell's palsy (BP). Two hundred sixty-nine patients affected by BP with a maximum delay of 48 hours from the onset were enrolled in the study. The evolution of the facial paresis expressed as House-Brackmann grade in the first 10 days and its correlation with symptoms were analyzed.

Autograft ossiculoplasty in cholesteatoma surgery: a histological study.

Conclusion: The results of the present study reject the hypothesis that epithelial inclusions into the ossicles could cause cholesteatoma recurrences, but strongly suggest the performance of a safe cleaning procedure for ossicular remnants to make them usable in ossiculoplasty in patients with partially or non-encapsulated cholesteatoma.

Objective: The aim of the study was to define, before any sort of cleaning procedure, if there is any epithelial inclusion inside the ossicles of patients with cholesteatoma and if the findings could be correlated with surgical aspect of cholesteatoma.

Methods: The specimens used for this study comprised 19 mallei and 15 incudes, which were obtained intraoperatively from 24 patients.

Oral versus short-term intratympanic prednisolone therapy for idiopathic sudden hearing loss.

Objectives: To assess the therapeutic effectiveness of an intratympanic (IT) steroid protocol compared to a systemic steroid protocol.

Methods: A total of 265 consecutive patients presenting unilateral idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss were divided into 2 groups. One group comprised 131 patients enrolled between May 2009 and May 2010, and the other consisted of 134 patients enrolled between June 2010 and June 2011; a total of 48 patients were excluded among the 2 groups.

Prognostic factors of Bell's palsy: multivariate analysis of electrophysiological findings.

Objectives/hypothesis: The study was designed to verify if one or more electrophysiological parameters could predict a risk of nonrecovery of normal facial function and the development of synkinesis in Bell's palsy (BP) subjects.

Study Design: Prospective case series.

Methods: A total of 120 subjects ranging from 18 to 70 years with unilateral BP (International Classification of Disease-11), Grade III to VI House-Brackmann (HB) degree, were assessed and treated with standardized oral steroids and antiviral drugs within 48 hours from onset.

Inferences and metaphoric comprehension in unilaterally implanted children with adequate formal oral language performance.

Objectives: To assess skills in inferences during conversations and in metaphors comprehension of unilaterally cochlear implanted children with adequate abilities at the formal language tests, comparing them with well-matched hearing peers; to verify the influence of age of implantation on overall skills.

Methods: The study was designed as a matched case-control study. 31 deaf children, unilateral cochlear implant users, with normal linguistic competence at formal language tests were compared with 31 normal hearing matched peers.

A 9-year-old boy with atypical retroauricular pain: a case report.

Idiopathic causes of retroauricular pain are rarely seen in clinical practice. We present a 9-year-old child who suffered from atypical retroauricular pain resistant to conventional treatment. After excluding any other cause of retroauricular pain, a nerve block was performed with a 0.

Pneumolabyrinth after intratympanic steroid injection in patient with prosthesis of the stapes: a case report.

The aim of this study is to present a patient who developed a pneumolabyrinth following intratympanic steroid injection performed one year after stapes surgery. The patient started a medical treatment but since no improvement of his symptoms occurred, 10 days after the intratympanic injection a surgical treatment was proposed. An exploratory tympanotomy showed a displacement of the stapes prosthesis from the platinotomy, a dislocation of the incus long process, a fracture of the footplate and a depression into the vestibule.

Basal cell carcinoma masked in rhinophyma.

Rhinophyma, the advanced stage of rosacea, is a lesion characterized by progressive hypertrophy and hyperplasia of sebaceous glandular tissue, connective tissue, and blood vessels. Rhinophyma can lead to a significant facial disfigurement and severe emotional distress, but it is not only an aesthetic problem, since rare cases of simultaneous presence of malignant tissue are described in the literature. The case of an 84-year-old farmer affected by basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and diagnosed in the context of rhinophyma is presented.

Long-term results of intratympanic prednisolone injection in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss.

Conclusion: The results demonstrate the stability of the efficacy over time of the intratympanic prednisolone protocol and they suggest that the spontaneous recovery does not significantly influence the long-term evaluation of intratympanic therapy. A 10-day follow-up after 3 days of intratympanic prednisolone administration can be considered a sufficient period to evaluate the effectiveness of the undertaken therapy.

Objective: To assess the stability of the efficacy over time of intratympanic steroid therapy for patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss.

Efficacy of early physical therapy in severe Bell's palsy: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Bell's palsy (BP) is the most frequent form of peripheral palsy of the facial nerve. Prognosis for recovery is good for most patients; in the remaining cases, different grades of residual impairment persist. Physical therapy, in association with drug administration, aims to improve outcomes.

Intratympanic steroid therapy in moderate sudden hearing loss: a randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Objectives/hypothesis: To investigate the efficacy of an intratympanic steroid as a first-line therapy in patients affected by moderate idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL).

Study Design: Prospective, randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Methods: Fifty patients presenting with moderate idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss involving all frequencies from 250 Hz to 8,000 Hz (a flat audiogram) were enrolled.

The Mozart effect in patients suffering from tinnitus.

Conclusion: The study suggests that Mozart therapy could be a valid alternative to the common sound therapy methods in tinnitus patients.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the presence of the Mozart effect as indexed by a variation in tinnitus intensity and tolerability.

Method: Sixty-two individuals aged between 22 and 78 years, reporting tinnitus for at least 1 year, were enrolled for the study.

Long-term follow-up of implanted children with cytomegalovirus-related deafness.

Objective: To evaluate, with a long-term follow-up, the speech perception and language development in children with cytomegalovirus (CMV)-related deafness after cochlear implantation.

Study Design: A retrospective study on CMV-related profound deafness and cochlear implantation was performed from 1995 to 2010. Six children with an average follow-up of 10 years were included in this research.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy with short duration intratympanic steroid therapy for sudden hearing loss.

Conclusion: The excellent tolerability of intratympanic (IT) steroid offers the possibility to use a high dose, which would appear to be more effective than intravenous (IV) steroid treatment, when both are associated with hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to assess for the first time the efficacy of the association of IT steroid and HBO therapy in patients presenting idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL), comparing this protocol with another consisting of IV steroid administration and HBO therapy.

Methods: A total of 48 patients presenting ISSNHL were recruited.

Botulinum toxin in the treatment of facial synkinesis and hyperkinesis.

Objectives/hypothesis: Facial synkinesis and hyperkinesis commonly impair the outcome of facial nerve palsy. Botulinum toxin type A has shown positive results in the treatment of these symptoms. Our experience is reported in this article.

Delayed retroauricular cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collection in cochlear implantation.

In the literature, this is the first description of a delayed retroauricular cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collection in a child after 18 months of cochlear implantation. During surgical revision, anomalous thinning of the dura and leakage of CSF was found beneath the receiver, requiring local sealing and repositioning. Exposure of the dura is a procedure usually performed during housing of the receiver to avoid excessive protrusion of the implant in subjects with insufficient bone thickness.

An electrophysiological approach to tinnitus interpretation.

Introduction: Serotonin seems to play a central role in tinnitus. The intensity dependence of auditory evoked potential (IDAP) is considered an index of central serotonergic activity in the auditory cortex. The higher the steepness of the N1/P2 component amplitude-stimulus function slope (N1/P2 ASF slope as calculated by IDAP), the lower the central serotonergic activity.

Benefits of the HiRes 120 coding strategy combined with the Harmony processor in an adult European multicentre study.

Conclusion: The Harmony processor was found to be reliable, comfortable and offered a substantially increased battery life compared with the previous generation processor. No significant improvement in speech understanding with HiRes was demonstrated from objective measures, but the majority of subjects showed a clear subjective preference for the combination HiRes 120/Harmony processor.

Objectives: To evaluate experience with the Harmony™ sound processor, together with the HiRes 120 strategy.

Deterioration of hearing in a cochlear implantee with relapsing polychondritis.

We report on a rare case of cochlear implantation in a patient affected by relapsing polychondritis (RP), which over time induced cochlear fibrosis/ossification and deterioration of previously excellent hearing performance. The clinical course was determined by CT scan, electrophysiology, and speech perception data. We conclude that RP is a severe autoimmune connective disorder that can cause profound sensorineural hearing loss.

Cyclo-oxygenase enzyme in the perilymph of human inner ear.

Conclusions: Cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme would not appear to be constitutively expressed in human perilymph while it is always induced in the perilymph of patients affected by sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). The COX-2 isoform may be involved in hearing loss and, therefore, pathological states of the inner ear should possibly be further analyzed to clarify the clinical relevance of prostaglandin and selective COX-2 antagonist therapy.

Objectives: Perilymph samples from a group of patients with bilateral SNHL and another with conductive hearing loss were collected to evaluate the presence of the COX-2 enzyme.