Multicenter assessment of exclusive endoscopic endonasal approach for the treatment of 53 olfactory neuroblastomas.

BACKGROUND: Given the particularities of olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) and the lack of studies on the subject, a multicenter collaborative study was conducted to assess treatment strategy. METHODS: Fifty-three patients with ONB were included from the French Rare Head and Neck Cancer Expert Network (REFCOR) database: 16T1, 8T2, 19T3, and 10T4. All cases were treated endoscopically with skull base removal and repair in 26 cases (49%) and without external craniotomy. RESULTS: The overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates at 5 years were 87% and 71%, respectively, with mean follow-up of 45.4 ± 26.5 months. The complication rate was 18.8% with 4 cases of meningitis. Pathological analysis showed positive margins in 26.8%, notably on the dura-mater and periorbita, without impairment of OS or DFS. Forty-eight patients received adjuvant radiotherapy on T ± N. Ten patients had a recurrence (18.9%). Six patients died of their disease. Prophylactic neck irradiation seemed to reduce the recurrence rate. CONCLUSION: Exclusively endoscopic treatment proved efficient and reliable in a large controlled series.

Endovascular management of a carotid aneurysm into the sphenoid sinus presenting with epistaxis.

Non-traumatic cavernous internal carotid artery (ICA) aneurysms are rare, and favour the occurrence of massive recurrent epistaxis, which is associated with a high mortality rate. We report the case of a 67-year-old woman presenting a ruptured ICA aneurysm extending into the sphenoid sinus, revealed by epistaxis. Selective coil embolization of the aneurysm was performed. Flow-diverter stents were deployed in order to utterly exclude the aneurysm and prevent revascularization. Anti-platelet treatment was provided to lower the risk of in-stent thrombosis. A left frontal hematoma associated with a subarachnoid haemorrhage occurred at day 2. Outcome was favourable with no neurological sequelae, and no clinical recurrence of epistaxis occurred. A 4 months follow-up digital subtraction angiography showed a complete exclusion of the aneurysm. In addition, a magnetic resonance cerebral angiography at 16 months showed stable results. Thus, this two-stage endovascular procedure has proven its effectiveness in preventing epistaxis recurrence while preserving the ICA patency.

Innovative endoscopic sino-nasal and anterior skull base robotics.

PURPOSE: Design a compact, ergonomic, and safe endoscope positioner dedicated to the sino-nasal tract, and the anterior and middle-stage skull base. METHODS: A motion and force analysis of the surgeon's movement was performed on cadaver heads to gather objective data for specification purposes. An experimental comparative study was then performed with three different kinematics, again on cadaver heads, in order to define the best architecture satisfying the motion and force requirements. RESULTS: We quantified the maximal forces applied on the endoscope when traversing the sino-nasal tract in order to evaluate the forces that the robot should be able to overcome. We also quantified the minimal forces that should not be exceeded in order to avoid damaging vital structures. We showed that the entrance point of the endoscope into the nostril could not be considered, as in laparoscopic surgery, as a fixed point but rather as a fixed region whose location and dimensions depend on the targeted sinus. CONCLUSION: From the safety and ergonomic points of view, the best solution would be a co-manipulated standard 6-degree of freedom robot to which is attached a gimbal-like passive remote manipulator holding the endoscope.

Robotic thyroid surgery: our experience with the infraclavicular approach.

BACKGROUND: Robot-assisted endoscopic transaxillary thyroidectomy is an emerging surgical technique. Despite promising results it presents some limitations and remains controversial in terms of usefulness and validity. We developed an alternative robotic technique using a gasless infraclavicular approach. METHODS: We tested this approach using cadaveric dissection, then we performed the technique on a series of 21 patients from October 2009 to July 2010. RESULTS: Sixteen patients underwent total thyroidectomy and 5 patients underwent lobectomies. Mean total operative time was 197 minutes. We observed postoperative complications in 4 patients. Pathologic diagnoses included: benign follicular adenoma (19 patients) and single papillary carcinoma <1 cm in diameter pT1a (2 patients). CONCLUSIONS: The infraclavicular approach for robotic thyroidectomy is feasible, but is not safe enough to be recommended, based on our experience and on the technical difficulties encountered. The use of 2 robotic arms instead of 3 is a major limitation for this technique.