Scope and limitations of limb-sparing surgery in childhood sarcomas

The authors reviewed 43 children with high-grade sarcomas of bone and soft tissue who underwent surgery during the past 9 years. Twenty-six patients had osteosarcoma, 7 had Ewing sarcoma, and 10 had soft tissue sarcomas. Patients ranged in age from 4 months to 13 years. Mean follow-up period was 6 years. The feasibility of resection, results of local resection, and failure of local disease control were reviewed. Limb salvage was feasible in 81% of patients. Of the 35 patients undergoing limb salvage, margins were considered adequate in 88% and inadequate in 12%. Limb-sparing resection was not feasible in 19% of patients. Five patients (four with metastatic disease at presentation) did not undergo surgery and were given palliative care; three other patients underwent amputation. The decision of whether to proceed with limb salvage surgery must depend on the aggressiveness of the underlying tumor, its stage, the feasibility of obtaining tumor-free resection margins, and the response to neoadjuvant therapy.     

Olfactory auras in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

PURPOSE: To investigate olfactory auras in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 217 Chinese patients who underwent temporal lobectomy for medically intractable TLE between 1987 and 1998 in Taiwan. Patients with olfactory auras asked for detailed characteristics of their auras. RESULTS: In all, 12 (5.5%) patients had olfactory auras, seven men and five women. All patients except one described and characterized the unpleasant olfactory auras. Olfactory auras were usually combined with other auras, most frequently sensations of epigastric rising, nausea, and fear. Association with gustatory hallucination was uncommon, in only one patient. On neuroimaging study, 11 patients had structural lesions involving the mesial temporal structures, two exclusively involving the amygdala. Histologic diagnosis included gliosis of the mesial temporal regions in seven (58.3%) patients, neoplasm in four (33.3%) patients, and arteriovenous malformation in one patient. Postoperatively, eight patients were seizure free. Three patients had rare seizures; however, none reported residual olfactory auras. CONCLUSIONS: Olfactory auras are infrequent in TLE. In this study, mesial temporal sclerosis is the most common etiology rather than tumors. Mesial temporal structures, especially the amygdala, may play important roles in the genesis of olfactory auras.     

Concurrent chemotherapy-radiotherapy compared with radiotherapy alone in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: progression-free survival analysis of a phase III randomized trial.

PURPOSE: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is highly sensitive to both radiotherapy (RT) and chemotherapy. This randomized phase III trial compared concurrent cisplatin-RT (CRT) with RT alone in patients with locoregionally advanced NPC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with Ho's N2 or N3 stage or N1 stage with nodal size > or = 4 cm were randomized to receive cisplatin 40 mg/m(2) weekly up to 8 weeks concurrently with radical RT (CRT) or RT alone. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS). RESULTS: Three hundred fifty eligible patients were randomized. Baseline patient characteristics were comparable in both arms. There were significantly more toxicities, including mucositis, myelosuppression, and weight loss in the CRT arm. There were no treatment-related deaths in the CRT arm, and one patient died during treatment in the RT-alone arm. At a median follow-up of 2.71 years, the 2-year PFS was 76% in the CRT arm and 69% in the RT-alone arm (P =.10) with a hazards ratio of 1.367 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.93 to 2.00). The treatment effect had a significant covariate interaction with tumor stage, and a subgroup analysis demonstrated a highly significant difference in favor of the CRT arm in Ho's stage T3 (P =.0075) with a hazards ratio of 2.328 (95% CI, 1.26 to 4.28). For T3 stage, the time to first distant failure was statistically significantly different in favor of the CRT arm (P =.016). CONCLUSION: Concurrent CRT is well tolerated in patients with advanced NPC in endemic areas. Although PFS was not significantly different between the concurrent CRT arm and the RT-alone arm in the overall comparison, PFS was significantly prolonged in patients with advanced tumor and node stages.     

The effect of anchors and training on the reliability of perceptual voice evaluation.

Perceptual voice evaluation is a common clinical tool for rating the severity of vocal quality impairment. However, the evaluation process involves subjective judgment, and reliability is therefore a major issue that needs to be considered. When listeners are asked to judge the quality of a voice signal, they use their own internal standards as the references. These internal standards can be variable, as different individuals may have acquired different standards in prior situations. In order to improve the reliability of the perceptual voice evaluation process, external anchors and training are provided to counteract the effect of these internal standards. This study investigated to what extent the provision of anchors and a training program would improve the reliability of perceptual voice evaluation by naive listeners. The results show, in general, that anchors and training helped to improve the reliability of perceptual voice evaluation, especially in the rating of male voices. Furthermore, it was found that anchors made up of synthesized signals combined with training were more effective in improving reliability in judging perceptual roughness and breathiness than natural voice anchors.     

Physiological anticoagulants and activated protein C resistance in childhood stroke

Immunological and functional protein S, protein C and antithrombin III levels and anticoagulant responses to activated protein C were measured in 24 patients with stroke in childhood. No hereditary deficiencies were found. The protein S levels in healthy controls of younger age did not differ from the adult levels. For optimal screening of protein S deficiency, measurements using functional as well as immunological assays are recommended. Appropriate criteria for the diagnosis of the deficiencies must be carefully applied if unnecessary anxiety and inappropriate treatment of children are to be avoided.     

Evaluation of attempted prevention of unexpected infant death in very high-risk infants by planned health care

Three hundred and ninety-six babies born in Sheffield between 1982 and 1990 identified as being at "very high risk" of unexpected infant death by means of a scoring system, received an intensive programme of health care including a case discussion between a paediatrician, the GP and the health visitor held in the family doctor's surgery, weekly visits from the health visitor and informal hospital admission. Significantly fewer sudden unexpected infant deaths occurred in this group than were expected by logistic regression anlysis or occurred in the best available control group with comparable scores ( p = 0.024). Problems in evaluation include identification of an adequate control population, ethical difficulties in introducing a controlled study when the programme is already perceived as effective, and the calculation of "expected death rates". The results of this study indicate that very energetic programmes of intervention may prevent some deaths in vulnerable infants.     

Fibromatosis of bone in children

Radiographs, computed tomograms, and radionuclide bone scans were obtained preoperatively in three children with fibromatosis involving the bones and soft tissues of the extremities. Two of the children had identical scar-like bone lesions of the proximal tibia, which, to the authors' knowledge, have not been reported before in this disease. The lesions recurred in two children.     

Laparoscopic management of Tenchkoff catheters in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis

We describe a one-port laparoscopic technique for assisting in Tenchkoff catheter placement and salvaging obstructed ones in patients requiring continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). This unique technique enables diagnostic laparoscopy, adhesiolysis, repositioning of catheters, and omentectomy to be performed without laparotomy. Six patients were treated. Only one 10-mm port was required, using an operating laparoscope and an instrument introduced through the working channel of the laparoscope. Adhesiolysis was performed under laparoscopic vision; omentectomy and flushing of blocked catheters were carried out extracorporeally. The catheters were then repositioned to the pelvic cavity under laparoscopic vision. All patients were followed up for 6–10 months. No mechanical problem was noticed. Our one-port laparoscopic technique is a simple and effective method for treating patients who have mechanical problems with their peritoneal dialysis catheters. Received: 14 January 1997/Accepted: 14 April 1997