Follow-up in head and neck cancer: patients' perspective.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to determine head and neck cancer patients' perspective of their follow-up regime and to suggest ways in which these perspectives can be incorporated into current practice. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This is a prospective survey-based study. A total of 263 patients consecutively attending a head and neck cancer clinic completed a survey about their experience of the follow-up process in the post-treatment period between January 2009 and October 2009. FINDINGS: The paper finds that, of the patients, 67 per cent (n = 176) felt that the clinic met the goals they hoped would be achieved during their visit; 84 per cent (n = 221) felt that their follow-up visits were too frequent. In total 60 per cent (n = 159) were booked to see both an allied health professional and the attending clinician. Of these, 84 per cent (n = 134/159) felt that issues addressed at follow-up with the clinician duplicated those addressed by the allied healthcare professionals. When asked about their opinion of a less intensive follow-up system based on patients reporting problems and requesting appointments, 73 per cent (n = 192) favoured it. When asked who they would like to contact first in such a system, most patients (n = 118, 45 per cent) stated a clinical nurse specialist. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Current follow-up regimes may be too prescriptive in their approach without taking patient perspective into consideration. Patients felt that being seen intensively for the first year, then having visits tapered off over the next two years and finally being seen according to symptoms thereafter to be appropriate and felt that this represented an overall better system. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: These data suggest the need for a more patient-focused, individualised approach to follow-up in head and neck cancer.

Is sleep nasendoscopy a valuable adjunct to clinical examination in the evaluation of upper airway obstruction?

The objective of the study is to assess the correlation between outpatient department (OPD) assessment and sleep nasendoscopy (SNE) in treatment planning for sleep related breathing disorders. The study design includes a blinded, cohort study comparing the treatment prediction based on OPD clinical evaluation with SNE in consecutive, adult patients by a single clinician with a specialist interest in snoring related disorders. Patients with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnoea and those who had undergone previous treatment were excluded. The study was conducted in Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London and Queen's Hospital, Romford. Ninety-four patients were recruited as participants for the study. The main outcome measures include site of obstruction and treatment planning. The results show no significant correlation between the two groups with SNE recommending less surgical intervention and a choice of surgical and non-surgical management in greater number of patients. In conclusion, even in experienced hands, clinical prediction is significantly modified by SNE findings. The addition of SNE to the diagnostic pathway, to assess the three-dimensional dynamic anatomy of the upper airway, provides a valuable adjunct to the OPD assessment of upper airway collapse. This affords the clinician a greater accuracy of diagnosis and the patient a more focussed management strategy with increased choice of modality of treatment.

Swallowing outcomes in children after slide tracheoplasty.

INTRODUCTION: Slide tracheoplasty is now considered gold standard treatment for long segment congenital tracheal stenosis. Outcomes are typically focused upon airway patency. Dysphagia is often reported in children undergoing cardiothoracic surgery, but not specifically after slide tracheoplasty. This study was carried out to describe the nature and prevalence of dysphagia following slide tracheoplasty for long segment congenital tracheal stenosis. METHODS: Retrospective case note review was conducted on a series of patients who underwent swallow evaluation following slide tracheoplasty between 2006 and 2014. A clinical swallow assessment was carried out by a Speech and Language Therapist with videofluoroscopic evaluation of swallowing where indicated. Logistic regression assessed the impact of gender, feeding history, weight, tracheal diameter, stenting and co-morbidities on the likelihood of having post-operative dysphagia. RESULTS: 43 out of 83 slide tracheoplasty patients underwent swallow evaluation. Dysphagia was identified in 30 (70%) of 43 patients. Videofluoroscopy was undertaken in 22 of these patients. All patients who had a videofluoroscopy presented with altered swallow physiology. Aspiration risk was confirmed in 15 patients with frank aspiration seen in 9. Pre-operative history of dysphagia was present in 9 patients. There were two cases of vocal fold palsy. The presence of a stent was the strongest predictor of post-operative dysphagia with an odds ratio of 10.6 (95% CI 1.2-92.8). CONCLUSIONS: This study documents a high prevalence of post-operative dysphagia in a pediatric population following slide tracheoplasty. In most cases there was no history suggestive of dysphagia pre-operatively. Swallowing needs to be assessed after slide tracheoplasty and longitudinal studies are required.

Teflon-induced granuloma: a source of false positive positron emission tomography and computerized tomography interpretation.

Patients diagnosed with malignancy often undergo combined positron emission tomography (PET) and computerized tomography (CT) to investigate possible metastases. This report presents a case in which, in the investigation of suspected pulmonary malignancy, combined PET and CT images suggested a malignant lesion at the level of the vocal fold. Biopsy of the lesion, however, confirmed the clinical diagnosis of a Teflon granuloma. The case highlights the potential for a false positive report during scanning of patients who have had vocal fold injection.