Pediatric intracapsular tonsillectomy with bipolar electrosurgical scissors.

This article describes the benefits of performing intracapsular tonsillectomy with bipolar electrosurgical scissors as an alternative to the powered microdebrider These scissors are used to excise approximately 90% of the tonsillar mass en bloc. The remaining tonsillar tissue is electrodesiccated by monopolar suction cautery, while the anterior and posterior pillars are completely preserved. The procedure leaves a smaller surgical wound than do extracapsular techniques.

Superstition and post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage.

Objectives/hypothesis: The objective was to determine whether post-tonsillectomy hemorrhages occur more frequently in redheaded children, in patterns of threes, on Friday-the-13th days, or with the full moon.

Study Design: Case-control analysis.

Methods: The authors performed multiple statistical analyses of all children undergoing tonsillectomy at Temple University Children's Medical Center (Philadelphia, PA) during a 29-month period.

Universal newborn hearing screening in an inner-city, managed care environment.

Objectives/hypothesis: Universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS) programs aim to identify and treat educationally significant hearing loss in the first months of life. Several states have mandated UNHS for all newborns. Such programs have been successful in small, homogeneous populations.

Adenoidectomy with laser or incisional myringotomy for otitis media with effusion.

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of CO2 laser myringotomy to incisional myringotomy at the time of adenoidectomy for refractory otitis media with effusion (OME).

Study Design: Controlled retrospective consecutive case series.

Methods: All children undergoing myringotomy and adenoidectomy for OME in the spring of 1999 had 1.

Prospective application of a protocol for selective nonsurgical management of suspected orbital subperiosteal abscesses in children.

Goodwin et al (1982) and Souliere et al (1990) have proposed a protocol for the selective nonsurgical management of suspected orbital subperiosteal abscesses. This protocol has been routinely applied by the Temple Pediatric Otolaryngology and Ophthalmology services since 1990. During this period, children with computed tomography and physical examination findings consistent with orbital subperiosteal abscesses and visual acuity better than 20/60 were treated with intravenous antibiotics rather than immediate surgery.