Vestibular dysfunction and compensation after removal of acoustic neuroma.

Objective: To evaluate vestibular function after unilateral acoustic neuroma surgery via a retrosigmoid approach.

Methods: Thirty-eight patients were tested using caloric irrigation, static posturography, and the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) before, and one week to nine months after surgery.

Results: Twenty-six patients were categorized as a response group and 12 as a no-response group on the basis of preoperative caloric irrigation findings.

Bone marrow stem cell transplantation to olfactory epithelium.

Objectives: We sought to develop a new therapeutic strategy for degeneration of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs).

Methods: We transplanted into Balb/C mice, locally by transnasal injection and systemically via the tail vain, BrdU-labeled bone marrow stem cells, also known as NRGs, which have the ability to differentiate into neural cells. Bone marrow stem cells engrafted into the olfactory epithelium were examined immunohistochemically.

Effect of intranasal administration of basic fibroblast growth factor on olfactory epithelium.

To further study the effects of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on the olfactory epithelium, bFGF was intranasally administered twice a day for 6 weeks to 2.5-month-old and 7-month-old mice. The effects were immunohistochemically examined by using antibodies against proliferating cell nuclear antigen, olfactory marker protein, and GAP43.

Risk factors for recurrence of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.

Objective: To assess the results of treatment for a first episode of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and risk factors for recurrence.

Study Design: Retrospective chart review of 148 BPPV patients at a tertiary care referral centre.

Materials And Methods: The canalith repositioning procedure (CRP) was performed until vertigo and nystagmus were resolved.

Retropharyngeal node metastasis from papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Background: Papillary thyroid carcinomas commonly metastasize to paratracheal and jugular lymph nodes. Metastasis to the retropharyngeal node is rare for this tumor.

Methods: Five patients underwent surgical treatment for metastasis of thyroid papillary carcinoma to the retropharyngeal lymph nodes that presented as a parapharyngeal or retropharyngeal mass.

A rare spontaneous temporal meningoencephalocele with dehiscence into the pterygoid fossa.

We present an extremely rare case of basal meningoencephalocele that protruded into the left pterygoid fossa from the middle cranial fossa. After a 30-year-old woman experienced a generalized tonic-clonic seizure, computed tomography (CT) scanning showed a large bone defect of the left middle cranial base. A mass lesion with low signal intensity on T1- and high signal intensity on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was visualized in the left pterygoid fossa.