A Rare Cause of Dysphagia: Giant Lipoma in Parapharyngeal Space.

BACKGROUND: Parapharyngeal area is one of the most complex areas of head and neck anatomy. Tumors of the parapharyngeal region are very rare among head and neck tumors. Lipomas also constitute a tiny proportion of parapharyngeal tumors so parapharyngeal area lipomas are very rare in the literature. Due to anatomical location, these tumors treatment is challenging. CLINICAL REPORT: A 20-year-old male patient admitted to our department with complaints of swallowing difficulty and a mass on the right side of the neck. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed, and it was reported as a 6 × 4.5 cm lipoma. He underwent excision of parapharyngeal area lipoma by a transoral approach. CONCLUSION: Parapharyngeal lipomas are very rare, and difficult to diagnose before they turn out symptomatic. The primary treatment approach in tumors of the parapharyngeal area is surgery and the surgical approach should be chosen according to the anatomical location of the lesion.

The effect of COVID-19 on nasal mucociliary clearance.

BACKGROUND: The impacts of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) on nasal mucociliary clearance (MCC) have shown conflicting results. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether COVID-19 infections affect nasal mucociliary activity using the saccharin test to measure nasal MCC time. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This prospective comparative investigation included 25 patients with COVID-19 infection and 25 healthy controls. The nasal MCC time was assessed using the saccharin test. Saccharin test was applied to COVID-19 patients between the 10th and 20th days of COVID-19 test positivity. Patients admitted to the otolaryngology outpatient clinic with non-nasal symptoms and no history of COVID-19 infection served as the control subjects. RESULTS: Age, gender distribution, smoking, and alcohol usage, and the existence of other systemic disorders had no statistically significant differences between the groups (p = 0.25, p = 0.77, p = 1.00, p = 0.28, p = 0.54, respectively). The COVID-19 group had a mean nasal MCC time of 12.00 ± 2.51 min, compared to 9.77 ± 2.51 min in the control group. The nasal MCC time in the COVID-19 group was statistically significantly longer (p = 0.043). CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: The COVID-19 infection negatively affects mucociliary activity and causes prolongation of MCC. As the nasal defense mechanism weakens in the early period after COVID-19 infection, susceptibility to respiratory infections may occur.