Shun Sagai

OBJECTIVES: To clarify the clinical risk factors that aggravate deep neck infection.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-five patients with deep neck infection (abscess or cellulitis), 42 males and 23 females, who were treated at the ear, nose, and throat department in Iwaki Kyoritsu General Hospital in the past 10 years, were retrospectively reviewed. Cases of inflammation of the upper airway including the oral cavity, laryngopharynx, palate tonsil and salivary gland, and cases of lymphadenitis ...

BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is among the major causes of respiratory tract infection in infants and young children, and concomitant acute otitis media (AOM) often develops. However, there are only a few reports about AOM associated with RSV infection.

METHODS: Two hundred and thirty children who were diagnosed as having RSV infection were studied by enzyme immunoassay (Testpack RSV) at the Department of Pediatrics of Tohoku Rosai Hospital from 1 November 2001 to 31 ...

OBJECTIVE: This prospective randomized Phase II study was designed to evaluate the preventive effect of an oral nutrition supplement composed of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate, arginine and glutamine (beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate/arginine/glutamine) on radiation dermatitis in head and neck cancer patients.

METHODS: Forty patients with histologically proven head and neck cancer, treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy involving cisplatin were recruited. They were randomly assigned ...

Retropharyngeal abscess commonly develops among infants and small children, and is associated with the severe inflammation of the retropharyngeal lymph nodes located in the retropharyngeal space. Retropharyngeal abscess causes cervical pain, swelling, contracture of the neck, and in rare cases inflammatory torticollis, all of which result from an inflammatory process that irritates the cervical muscles, nerves or vertebrae. Here we report a rare case of retropharyngeal abscess with a ...

Inferior laryngeal nerve (ILN), which usually arises from vagus nerve, runs recurrent course and is called recurrent ILN (RILN). Intimate knowledge of normal and anatomic variants of the ILN reduces the risk of nerve injury and vocal cord paralysis in thyroid and parathyroid surgery. The nonrecurrent ILN (NRILN) is a rare nerve anomaly that is associated with a right aberrant subclavian artery. We encountered 2 patients with NRILN during thyroid surgery. Patient 1, a 57-year-old woman, ...

Warthin tumor (WT) is a benign tumor of the salivary gland primarily affecting middle-aged men. WT is almost exclusively located in the parotid gland and tend to grow slowly without symptoms. Although fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) often correctly diagnoses these tumors, they are occasionally misdiagnosed as malignant. Our study sought to distinguish between WT and non-WT using dynamic MRI. In dynamic MRI, a series of images are taken over time measuring the intensity of ...

The incidence of oral cancer is increasing all over the world and tongue cancer is the most common type of oral cancer. However, standard treatment strategy for early stage tongue cancer has not yet been determined. To assess the appropriate therapy including elective neck dissection, a retrospective chart review of the patients were performed. Thirty-one patients with T1 or T2 tongue carcinomas were surgically treated in our hospital from 2001 through 2005. Twenty-one out of these ...

We investigated rapid diagnosis of acute otitis media, (AOM) with the Binax NOW® Streptococcus pneumoniae test kit. Middle ear fluid specimens were obtained from 38 children with AOM (mean age: 1.1 years). Binax NOW® demonstrated 100% sensitivity and 72% specificity, suggesting it is a useful auxiliary test for AOM.

OBJECTIVE: Acute otitis media (AOM) is one of the most common complications of viral respiratory tract infections in children, but the role of each virus is still to be elucidated. We analyzed AOM associated with infection by cytomegalovirus (CMV), which is known as one of the major causes of viral respiratory tract infection.

METHODS: Four hundred and ninety-five children (292 boys and 203 girls) diagnosed as having AOM in 2002 were studied. All of the children were under 6 years old, ...

Unlike other advanced nations, secondary spread of tuberculosis still occurs in Japan. Cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis is still an important disease of the neck, and between 2001 to 2005, we treated 6 patients with cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis. All 6 patients were females, and their ages ranged from 28 to 77 years old (average: 62 years). One patient had received antitubercular chemotherapy for pulmonary tuberculosis 40 years earlier. Two patients had a family history of ...

Measles virus was isolated from the middle ear fluid (MEF) of two infant cases of acute otitis media (AOM) associated with measles. This is the first report on the isolation of measles virus from the MEF in patients with AOM, and possibility of the measles virus as a causative agent of AOM was suggested.

PURPOSE: In this article, a simple, new laryngeal suspension procedure is described. The effect of hyoid bone suspension by suturing the digastric muscle to the periosteum of the mandible is analyzed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: To elucidate the effect of hyoid bone suspension, CT scans of 26 patients who underwent ipsilateral neck dissection with primary resection of tongue cancer were retrospectively reviewed, and the distance between the hyoid bone and the mandible was measured on the ...

Recently, free tissue transfer techniques using microvascular anastomosis have become generally accepted tools in reconstruction of the head and neck. However, such radical techniques cannot always be applied in cases of high-risk patients due to the possibility of serious complications. We describe here a case of buccal mucosa squamous cell carcinoma infiltrating the corner of the lip. The patient was a 74-year-old woman who had severe heart disease. Therefore, we performed an oral ...

We present two very old patients aged over 90 years with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent total laryngectomy. The first case was a 91-year-old female with cT2N0M0 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. She was staying in a geriatric health services facility and had an ECOG-PS of 1 even though she used a wheelchair after fracturing her femur. Emergency tracheostomy was performed when stridor was detected during her first visit to our hospital. Total laryngectomy was performed ...