Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on hospital visit of head and neck cancer patients.

Objective: Head and neck cancer (HNC) often causes respiratory symptoms, so diagnostic delays due to COVID-19 are anticipated. Especially, our institute is a designated medical institute for Class 1 specified infectious diseases, and most of the severe COVID-19 patients in this region were preferentially admitted or transferred. Hereby, we evaluated the trends of the numbers, primary sites and clinical stages of HNC patients before and after COVID-19 pandemic.

Multidisciplinary Approach for the Management of a Case With Craniofacial Penetrating Injury Compressing the Internal Carotid Artery.

A craniofacial penetrating injury can be severe when a foreign object reaches the skull base, causing an intracranial hemorrhage or a pseudoaneurysm. We report a case of sharp craniofacial injury in which a thin wooden rod moved from the orbit to the internal carotid artery. With a multidisciplinary team consisting of neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, and otolaryngologists, the foreign body was safely removed, and the patient healed without complications or sequelae.

High Riding Jugular Bulb Protruding Into Tympanic Cavity: Longitudinal Radiologic Study in a Deaf Child.

Background: High riding jugular bulb (HRJB) develops after 2 years and is rare at younger ages. High riding jugular bulb sometimes protrudes into the tympanic cavity, which can cause hemorrhagic complications during otologic surgery.

Case Presentation: We describe a congenitally deaf child with bilateral inner ear malformations and a right-sided HRJB on CT at 9 months.

Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy With Weekly Low-Dose Cisplatin for Japanese Patients With Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Background: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with tri-weekly high-dose cisplatin (HDC) is considered the standard regimen. However, due to significant toxicity, various weekly low-dose schedules have been increasingly used. We investigated the tolerability and survival of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) who underwent CCRT with low-dose weekly cisplatin (LDC) for Japanese population.

Prognostic impact of incisional or excisional biopsy of cervical lymph node metastases of solid tumors.

Objectives: In performing an open biopsy of a neck mass, an incisional biopsy may increase the risk of cancer cell seeding and dissemination that, ultimately, worsens a patient's survival. The aim of this study was to compare the impact of incisional and excisional biopsies of cervical lymph node metastases of solid tumors on patients' survival.

Methods: A retrospective review was made of patients with cervical metastases of solid tumors who underwent an open biopsy for a diagnosis between 2005 and 2015.

Facial flushing after alcohol intake as a predictor for a high risk of synchronous or metachronous cancer of the upper gastrointestinal tract.

Background: In Japan, there has been a lot of reports showing an association between facial flushing after light alcohol consumption and heterozygosity for inactive aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 (ALDH2). Persons with inactive ALDH2 may have a higher risk of alcohol-related oral, pharyngeal and esophageal cancers, compared with those with wild-type ALDH2. The purpose of this study was to examine whether flushers with oral or pharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma have an increased risk of synchronous or metachronous cancer of the upper gastrointestinal (UGI) tract.

Audio-visual speech perception in prelingually deafened Japanese children following sequential bilateral cochlear implantation.

Objectives: An effect of audio-visual (AV) integration is observed when the auditory and visual stimuli are incongruent (the McGurk effect). In general, AV integration is helpful especially in subjects wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants (CIs). However, the influence of AV integration on spoken word recognition in individuals with bilateral CIs (Bi-CIs) has not been fully investigated so far.