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Query: UMLS:C0011168 (dysphagia)
 15,644 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Primary synovial sarcoma is an unusual tumor of the head and neck. Fewer than 75 cases have been reported in the literature. We have treated 7 additional cases; 3 in the hypopharynx, 2 in the parapharyngeal space, 1 in the oral pharynx and 1 in the posterior triangle of the neck. An enlarging cervical mass, voice change, and dysphagia were among the presenting complaints. CT revealed solitary nonhomogenous tumors from 3 to 7 cm in diameter. Microscopically, all cases showed a biphasic cellular pattern verified by immunohistochemical staining. Multimodality treatment consisted of surgery and postoperative radiation therapy with 3 patients receiving chemotherapy. Although the original pathology report was incorrect in 3 cases, clinical suspicion for synovial sarcoma ensured proper diagnosis.
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PMID:Synovial sarcoma of the head and neck. 132 May 96

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, in contrast to well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma, has a dismal prognosis, and little progress has been made in improving survival for this disease. We reviewed our experience during a 23-year period to identify risk factors and possible methods to improve outcome. Between 1966 and 1989, 340 patients with thyroid carcinoma underwent operation. Of these, 17 (5%) were undergoing operative treatment of anaplastic or undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma. The female/male ratio was 3.5:1, and mean age at presentation was 63 years. The most common presenting symptoms included neck mass, voice change, or dysphagia. Unusual presentations included symptomatic bradycardia from compression of the vagus nerve and superior vena cava syndrome. Four patients had a history of well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Nine patients had been diagnosed or treated in the past for "goiter" or a neck mass, and four patients had concurrent differentiated thyroid carcinoma associated with the anaplastic tumor. Thus 13 (76%) of 17 patients had a previous thyroid disorder, benign or differentiated malignant, and eight (47%) of 17 patients had previous or concurrent differentiated thyroid carcinoma. At the time of presentation, six patients had unilateral true vocal cord paralysis. At operation, 14 patients had local extension of the tumor and four required tracheostomy. Only five of 12 patients showed response to postoperative radiation therapy. Overall median survival was 12 months, and 13 (76%) of 17 patients died. The two patients alive longer than 12 months had only small foci of anaplastic carcinoma in association with well-differentiated carcinoma. Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is a locally and systemically aggressive disease, with long-term survival seen only in those with well-localized anaplastic tumor. The major risk factor in this series is a history of previous benign or malignant thyroid disease. Because of this, a more aggressive approach to thyroid masses may be warranted. Long-standing goiters or benign nodules should be followed carefully and considered for resection if they grow or do not respond to medical therapy, and total thyroidectomy for malignant disease may obviate the subsequent development of anaplastic carcinoma. This method of early diagnosis and resection of abnormal thyroid tissue seems to be the only method currently available to improve the nearly uniform fatality of this disease.
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PMID:Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: risk factors and outcome. 174 83

Distinguishing peritonsillar abscess from cellulitis is an important clinical problem, particularly in children, who may require a general anesthetic for drainage of these abscesses. In order to identify those clinical factors most significant for peritonsillar abscess, we did a prospective study of 21 patients who presented with sore throat, fever, trismus, and tonsillar bulge; all symptoms that are consistent with the diagnosis of peritonsillar abscess. On admission, the following parameters were recorded: patient age, duration of sore throat, fever, white blood cell count, drooling, the degree of trismus (measured exactly as incisor-incisor distance), the degree of pharyngotonsillar bulge, and change in voice. After 24 to 48 hours of parenteral antibiotics, 12 patients (57%) had improved sufficiently and were continued on antibiotics until resolution (cellulitis group). Nine patients (43%) had no improvement and underwent surgery for drainage of the peritonsillar abscess (abscess group). At the end of the 18-month study period, the cellulitis and abscess groups were compared. On admission, no significant difference was found in age, duration of sore throat, fever, or white blood cell count. The pharyngotonsillar bulge was mild in 58% and moderate in 42% of the cellulitis group, while in the abscess group, the pharyngotonsillar bulge was mild in only 33% and moderate in 67%. After 24 to 48 hours of parenteral antibiotics, all patients in the cellulitis group had improvement of at least one symptom; whereas, all patients in the abscess group had no change or worsening of at least one symptom, including trismus, dysphagia, voice change, drooling, or pharyngotonsillar bulge. On admission, the precise measurement of trismus was not significantly different in the two groups (24.7 mm in cellulitis group vs. 22.5 mm in abscess group). However, after 24 hours of antibiotics, trismus averaged 7 mm more in the abscess group versus the cellulitis group (p less than 0.05).
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PMID:A clinical prospective study of peritonsillar abscess in children. 316 36

Peritonsillitis encompasses both cellulitis and abscess. To determine the distinguishing factors for cellulitis and abscess, we reviewed 29 patients, 15 with cellulitis and 14 with abscess. Common presenting complaints included dysphagia, trismus, drooling, voice change and fever. Unilateral tonsillar enlargement was usually present, and uvular deviation was noted in 10 of 29 patients. The mean ages of patients with abscess was 15.0 years, and that of patients with cellulitis was 10.8 years. The two groups differed significantly by age (P = 0.02), and discriminant analysis showed age, dysphagia and drooling to be discriminators for abscess patients, while bilaterality or fever were not. Trismus was a discriminator for cellulitis patients. Etiology for abscess included Group A and non-Group A beta-hemolytic streptococci, Group D streptococcus, alpha-streptococcus, anaerobic diphtheroids and coagulase-negative staphylococci. The etiology of the cellulitis was Group A and non-Group A beta-hemolytic streptococci and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Peritonsillitis appeared to increase in frequency. On presentation patients with cellulitis are similar to patients with abscess. Abscess is more likely in adolescents. Recommended therapy is intravenous penicillin and prompt drainage for patients failing to respond.
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PMID:Peritonsillitis: abscess or cellulitis? 346 43

Malignant mesenchymoma is a very rare head and neck tumour. To date only 15 cases have been reported in world literature and all in children under 16 years of age. We present here a case of a 40-year-old man with malignant mesenchymoma of the retropharyngeal space. The clinical picture is that of progressive dysphagia, voice change, snoring and dyspnoea. CT scan showed a soft tissue space-occupying lesion of the retropharyngeal space which enhanced very well with intravenous contrast. The tumour was excised in toto and the patient given post-operative radiotherapy. Histopathology showed two unrelated differentiated tissue types (bone and fat) in addition to the fibrosarcomatous element thus satisfying Stout's criteria (Stout, 1948) for a diagnosis of malignant mesenchymoma.
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PMID:Malignant mesenchymoma of the retropharyngeal space. 828 11

Primary lymphoma is an uncommon malignancy of the thyroid, comprising between 0.6 and 5 per cent of thyroid cancers in most series. This report is presented because of a 10 per cent (6 of 60) incidence of this cancer at one institution. A short history of a rapidly enlarging neck mass often associated with dyspnea, difficulty swallowing, or voice change is the hallmark presentation of thyroid lymphoma. The majority of patients are women with a mean age in the 6th decade. Although fine-needle aspiration has become the procedure of choice for the diagnosis of a thyroid nodule, it has yielded mixed results with the presence of lymphoma. The majority of thyroid lymphomas are diffuse, large cell lesions of B-cell origin. Controversy remains as to the role of surgery in thyroid lymphomas. Within the improvement in results with the use of radiotherapy and chemotherapy alone or in combination, some authors have advocated relegating surgery to the role of diagnosis only. This can be accomplished by fine-needle aspiration, core biopsy, or open biopsy. Others have favored a more aggressive surgical approach, showing that the amount of residual disease after debulking procedures was directly correlated with local and distant recurrences. A lack of randomized prospective studies makes it difficult to resolve this issue. The rates of complications of surgery, including hypocalcemia and recurrent laryngeal nerve damage, are higher than for operations for other types of thyroid malignancy. Improved prognosis has been associated with the following factors: disease limited to the thyroid, the absence of dysphagia, primary mass less than 10 cm, tumors without necrosis, and tumors consisting of plasmacytomas.
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PMID:Primary lymphoma of the thyroid. 954 44

Aspiration is an important variable related to increased morbidity, mortality, and cost of care for acute stroke patients. This prospective systematic replication study compared a clinical swallowing examination consisting of six clinical identifiers of aspiration risk, i.e., dysphonia, dysarthria, abnormal gag reflex, abnormal volitional cough, cough after swallow, and voice change after swallow, with an instrumental fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) to determine reliability in identifying aspiration risk following acute stroke. A referred consecutive sample of 49 first-time stroke patients was evaluated within 24 hours poststroke, first with the clinical examination followed immediately by FEES. The endoscopist was blinded to results of clinical testing. The clinical examination correctly identified 19 subjects with aspiration risk, when compared with the criterion standard FEES, but incorrectly identified 3 patients as having no aspiration risk when they did. The clinical examination incorrectly identified 19 subjects with aspiration risk but determined correctly no aspiration risk in 8 patients who did not exhibit aspiration risk on FEES. Clinical examination sensitivity = 86%; specificity = 30%; false negative rate = 14%; false positive rate = 70%; positive predictive value = 50%; and negative predictive value = 73%. It was concluded that the clinical examination, when compared with FEES, underestimated aspiration risk in patients with aspiration risk and overestimated aspiration risk in patients who did not exhibit aspiration risk. Careful consideration of the limitations of clinical testing leads us to believe that a reliable, timely, and cost-effective instrumental swallow evaluation should be available for the majority of patients following acute stroke.
Dysphagia 2002
PMID:Aspiration risk after acute stroke: comparison of clinical examination and fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing. 1458 80

Otolaryngological manifestations of acid reflux include a wide range of pharyngeal and laryngeal symptoms; and the constellation of symptoms has been called laryngopharyngeal reflux. This is a prospective study in a cohort of patients with various throat symptoms suggestive of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) who underwent flexible oesophago-gastroscopy, as a principal investigation. The aims were to look at the most reliable symptom(s) and sign(s), the diagnostic role of flexible oesophago-gastroscopy and the treatment response in these patients. The endoscopy score of 0 to 3 was based on endoscopic findings and the treatment response was measured from 0 to 100 per cent improvement of symptoms, as described by the patients. There were a total of 303 patients, 174 females and 129 males with ages ranging from 19 to 88 years. Seventy-five per cent had had symptoms for more than a year. Fifteen per cent were smokers. Globus, voice change, sore throat, dysphagia and cough were the predominant symptoms. Most patients, however, presented with a complex of various other secondary symptoms. The endoscopic findings were abnormal in 98 per cent of patients. Apart from the finding of non-specific hyperaemia, usually of the posterior larynx (13 per cent), lesions of the larynx and vocal folds were surprisingly uncommon. Proton pump inhibitors (PPI) were prescribed in 90 per cent of patients. A total of 233 (76.8 per cent) responded to treatment. The improvement of symptoms ranged from 25 per cent in 36 (23 per cent), 50 per cent in 60 (20 per cent), 75 per cent in 59 (19 per cent) and 100 per cent in 78 (26 per cent) patients. Accumulative analysis of variance showed a significant difference between treatment responders and non-responders (p <0.04). In a logistic regression model patients with globus, voice change and gastric prolapse were more likely to respond to treatment (p <0.04). It can be concluded that voice change, sore throat, globus and cough choking are the most reliable symptoms of laryngopharyngeal reflux. Voice change and globus symptoms can be of predictive value in terms of successful treatment response. Flexible oesophago-gastroscopy (FOG) is a simple, safe and reliable way of assessment in these cases and treatment with PPI can be effective in the majority of patients.
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PMID:Acid reflux management: ENT perspective. 1497 68

Overall data in the feld of 'gerontology' are scarce in India. Some major geriatric problems in otolaryngology like presbyacusis, disequilibrium, vertigo, tinnitus, nasal and pharyngeal changes, voice change, dysphagia, arthritis, snoring, falls, have been briefly addressed to in the present article.
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PMID:Geriatric problems in otolaryngology. 1571 82

Lymphatic, venous, and mixed lymphovenous malformations are low-flow lesions that are present at birth and grow proportionately with the patient. We describe an unusual presentation of a lymphovenous malformation in an adult. A 19-year-old man presented to the emergency department with complaints of recent upper respiratory tract symptoms, increasing left-sided sore throat, voice change, odynophagia, dysphagia, and occasional subjective fevers and blood-tinged sputum. Examination revealed the presence of a left peritonsillar bulge consistent with a peritonsillar abscess; however, findings on needle aspiration were negative. The patient was admitted for intravenous steroid and antibiotic therapy. Within 24 hours, his airway became compromised, and he underwent an awake tracheotomy and biopsy, which showed a lymphovenous malformation. Magnetic resonance imaging the following day revealed a large, poorly circumscribed, heterogeneous left parapharyngeal mass consistent with a vascular malformation. With continuation of the steroids and antibiotics, the lesion regressed, and the patient was subsequently decannulated. At the 1-year follow-up, he exhibited no clinical symptoms, and he was in good health off steroids.
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PMID:An unusual case of adult airway obstruction from a lymphovenous malformation. 1863 36


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