Positioning Accuracy in Otosurgery Measured with Optical Tracking.

Objectives: To assess positioning accuracy in otosurgery and to test the impact of the two-handed instrument holding technique and the instrument support technique on surgical precision. To test an otologic training model with optical tracking.

Study Design: In total, 14 ENT surgeons in the same department with different levels of surgical experience performed static and dynamic tasks with otologic microinstruments under simulated otosurgical conditions.

Microanatomy of the tympanic membrane in chronic myringitis obtained with optical coherence tomography.

A microscope-based optical coherence tomography (OCT) device was used to assess the microanatomy of the tympanic membrane in patients with chronic myringitis. A prospective study was designed for this purpose. OCT measurements of the tympanic membrane were done on 11 patients with myringitis with a microscope-based spectral domain OCT system.

Prediction of Parkinson's disease subsequent to severe depression: a ten-year follow-up study.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with an increased risk of subsequent Parkinson's disease (PD) in case-control and cohort studies. However, depression alone is unlikely to be a useful marker of prodromal PD due to its low specificity. In this longitudinal observational study, we assessed whether the presence of other potential markers of prodromal PD predicts the subsequent development of PD in MDD patients.

Conservative management of post-intubation tracheal tears-report of three cases.

Iatrogenic tracheal rupture is a rare complication after intubation. We present three patients with tracheal tears. In all of these patients, a common finding was a lesion of the posterior tracheal wall with postoperative subcutaneous and emphysema as the first clinical sign of the rupture.

Comparative Study between the Surgeon's Intraoperative Evaluation and Histopathology for Diagnosis of Laryngeal Lesions.

Objective. To compare the surgeon's evaluation and histopathology for diagnosis of laryngeal lesions. Material.

Would an endosteal CI-electrode make sense? Comparison of the auditory nerve excitability from different stimulation sites using ESRT measurements and mathematical models.

Unlabelled: Regarding potential endosteal cochlear implant electrodes, the primary goal of this paper is to compare different intra- and extra-cochlear stimulation sites in terms of current strengths needed for stimulating the auditory nerve. Our study was performed during routine cochlear implantation using needle electrodes for electric stimulation and by visually recording electrically elicited stapedius reflexes (ESRT) as a measure for the stimulus transfer. Of course this rather simple setup only allows rough estimations, which, however, may provide further arguments whether or not to proceed with the concept of an endosteal electrode.

Taste function after stapes surgery.

Objective: A manipulation of chorda tympani nerve (CTN) is frequently necessary during the surgical therapy of stapedial ankylosis. The aim of this study was to re-assess the taste function before and after stapes surgery in patients with unilateral stapes ankylosis.

Methods: Eighteen patients (14 female and 4 male) with unilateral stapedial ankylosis were included.

Effect of the stapedotomy technique on early post-operative hearing results--Preliminary results.

Objective: To compare three stapedotomy modalities used to fenestrate the stapes footplate in patients with primary otosclerosis.

Materials: The non-randomized and unblinded one-center study included 48 patients with primary otosclerosis who underwent stapes surgery between May 2008 and April 2009. The patients were divided into three groups (single shot and two-shot CO(2) laser stapedotomy, perforator) depending on the modality used for stapedotomy.

[Optical coherence tomography in otolaryngology].

Optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique based on coherence interferometry. It is used in many medical fields due to its non-invasive imaging capabilities with micrometer resolution. The aim of the authors was to review the applicability of the optical coherence tomography in otolaryngology.

Changes in taste bud volume during taste disturbance.

On-line mapping and serial volume measurements of taste buds with confocal laser scanning microscopy provide information on the peripheral gustatory organ over time. We report the volumetric measurements of four selected fungiform papillae over 8 weeks in a 62-year-old man with taste disturbance, which was more apparent on the right than on the left side. In the two papillae on the right side, no taste buds were detected within the fungiform papillae in the sixth and eighth week.

Optical coherence tomography allows for the reliable identification of laryngeal epithelial dysplasia and for precise biopsy: a clinicopathological study of 61 patients undergoing microlaryngoscopy.

Objectives/hypothesis: A newly developed microscope-based spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) device and an endoscope-based time-domain OCT (TD-OCT) were used to assess the inter-rater reliability, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of benign and dysplastic laryngeal epithelial lesions.

Study Design: Prospective study.

Methods: OCT during microlaryngoscopy was done on 35 patients with an endoscope-based TD-OCT, and on 26 patients by an SD-OCT system integrated into an operating microscope.

Normative data for a solution-based taste test.

The aim of our study was to study gustatory function in a large portion of the general population using liquid tastants, extending previous research. Further, we investigated the test-retest reliability of the test used. Data from 944 healthy subjects were used (498 women and 446 men, mean age 45 years; age range 5-90 years).

Rigid confocal endoscopy for in vivo imaging of experimental oral squamous intra-epithelial lesions.

Background: A rigid confocal endoscope has been developed to assess the oral squamous epithelium of mice and to determine sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of this new technology.

Methods: This endoscope is connected to the commercially available Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (HRT). HRT is a device with a 670-nm diode laser designed to acquire topographical measurements of the optic nerve head.

Third window vibroplasty: an alternative in surgical treatment of tympanosclerotic obliteration of the oval and round window niche.

Objective: To describe a new technique in surgical treatment of obliterative tympanosclerosis by applying a floating mass transducer (FMT) to a third window.

Patient: A 64-year-old woman with a severe combined hearing loss due to tympanosclerosis received a third window vibroplasty.

Intervention: A mastoidectomy and a posterior tympanotomy via the large facial recess were performed.

Change of the human taste bud volume over time.

Objective: The specific aim of this study is to measure the taste volume in healthy human subjects over a 2.5-month period and to demonstrate morphological changes of the peripheral taste organs.

Material And Methods: Eighteen human taste buds in four fungiform papillae (fPap) were examined over a 10-week period.

Pressure changes in the human middle ear without opening the eustachian tube.

Conclusion: By means of a direct, though non-invasive experiment on healthy humans we could demonstrate that middle ear (ME) pressure decreases when the eustachian tube (ET) does not open. Thus with a very simple method the basic theory of continuous gas loss from the ME into the circulation and the replenishment of the loss through the ET could be validated.

Objectives: To record changes in ME pressure over a period of time in normal human ears, while the ET is kept closed.

Tympanometric experiments on retracted ear drums--does tympanometry reflect the true middle ear pressure?

Conclusions: Tympanometry in ears with retracted or partially atelectatic tympanic membranes does not reflect the true middle ear (ME) pressure. The position of the tympanogram peak depends on the size of a retraction pocket and the remaining ME gas volume. Thus tympanometry in such cases cannot be used for measurements of ME pressure.

Cephalic phase insulin release in healthy humans after taste stimulation?

In humans little is known as to whether taste solutions applied to the tongue elicit cephalic phase insulin release (CPIR). The aim of this study was to re-examine if any effect of different taste solutions on CPIR occurs. Under fasting conditions healthy human subjects sipped, and washed out their mouths with eight taste solutions (sucrose, saccharin, acetic acid, sodium chloride, quinine hydrochloride, distilled water, starch, and sodium glutamate) for 45 s and spat them out again.

Monitoring residual hearing during cochlear implantation by intra-operative brainstem audiometry.

Objective: Aim of this paper is to prove the applicability of intra-operative recordings of auditory brainstem responses during cochlear implantation.

Methods: The clinical practicability of intra-operative monitoring of hearing thresholds (Notched-Noise BERA, Amplitude Modulation Following Response [AMFR]) is presented in the respective case. The recordings were performed prior to the cochlear implantation and were compared with those obtained during and after cochlear implantation.

Optical coherence tomography as an orientation guide in cochlear implant surgery?

Conclusion: With optical coherence tomography (OCT) it is basically possible to reveal parts of the cochlear morphology without opening its enveloping membranes. Thus, it may serve as a helpful guide for the surgeon to localize the scala tympani precisely before opening the fluid-filled inner ear to insert the electrode array.

Objective: To improve anatomical orientation in cochlear implant surgery before definitively opening the fluid-filled inner ear.

Changes of oral trigeminal sensitivity in patients after middle ear surgery.

Objectives: The specific aim of this study was to re-investigate the effect of chorda tympani damage on both trigeminal sensitivity and taste ability.

Study Design: Prospective study.

Methods: Capsaicin-impregnated filter paper strips (5 concentrations, 0.

Noise exposure of the inner ear during drilling a cochleostomy for cochlear implantation.

Objectives: Inserting an electrode array into the cochlea may cause inner ear trauma, which has to be minimized, particularly in cochlear implant patients with substantial residual hearing. Another potential inner ear trauma has, to a large extent, been neglected so far: the acoustic trauma that can occur during cochleostomy using different techniques. In this study, the noise exposure of the inner ear during the drilling procedure was re-evaluated.

Assessment of oral trigeminal sensitivity in humans.

The aim of this prospective study was to establish a clinical test for the assessment of oral trigeminal sensitivity. Capsaicin-impregnated filter paper strips (five concentrations: 0.0001-1%) were used to measure trigeminal thresholds.