Protective and therapeutic effects of milrinone on acoustic trauma in rat cochlea.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the potential protective and therapeutic effects of milrinone, a specific phosphodiesterase (PDE) III inhibitor, on acoustic trauma-induced cochlear injury and apoptosis. METHODS: A total number of 30 healthy Wistar albino rats were evenly divided into five groups as follows: group 1 was assigned as control group; group 2 and 3 were assigned as low-dosage groups (0.25 mg/kg) in which milrinone was administered 1 h before acoustic trauma (AT) and 2 h after AT, respectively; group 4 and 5 were assigned as high-dosage groups (0.50 mg/kg) in which the drug was administered 1 h before AT and 2 h after AT, respectively. Except control group, all treatment groups received a single dosage of milrinone for 5 days. Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) measurements were recorded before AT as well as at second and fifth post-traumatic days. At the end of fifth day, all rats were sacrificed and the cochlea of the rats was removed for histopathological evaluation. In addition, the groups were compared in terms of apoptotic index via caspase-3 staining. RESULTS: In terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), there was no statistically significant difference among the groups following AT (p > 0.05). After 5 days of milrinone treatment, the best SNR values were found in group 5, though all groups did not statistically differ (p > 0.05). In histopathological evaluation, vacuolization, inflammation, and edema scores in all treatment groups were statistically lower than those of the control group (p < 0.05). In group 2 and 4 where the drug was administered before AT, the inflammation and apoptosis index was lower than those of group 3 and 5 where the drug was administered after AT (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: We reveal that milrinone has a protective effect on cochlear damage in the experimental acoustic model of rats. This protective effect was more apparent following the pre-traumatic milrinone administration, and is associated with its effect on decreasing inflammation and apoptosis. Based on DPOAE measurements following AT, especially in the group 5 (high-dosage group), milrinone may also have a therapeutic effect.

Can we determine recurrent epistaxis by hemogram parameters in children?

OBJECTIVE: Epistaxis in children is a common reason for admission at otolaryngology outpatient clinics. Patients are diagnosed by clinical examination and laboratory tests. We aimed to evaluate epistaxis using simple blood parameters useful for diagnosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study includes a retrospective analysis of 240 patients, including 120 study group and 120 healthy pediatric patients, who applied to the ENT outpatient clinic with the diagnosis of epistaxis between 2018 and 2020. This study is designed to analyze the predictive values of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), eosinophil-LR (ELR), platelet-LR (PLR), plateletcrit (PCT), mean platelet volume (MPV), and platelet distribution width (PDW) in pediatric epistaxis. RESULTS: Serological factors were assessed and no statistical associations in MPV, PDW, PLR, and ELR values were found. However, significant changes were found for PCT and NLR within the patient and control groups. The average PCT was lower in the study group in comparison to the controls (p = 0.022). The average NLR was higher in the study group in comparison to the controls (p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: The examination of children with epistaxis, as well as their management, following admission to the outpatient clinic continues to evolve. Although many studies have investigated the hemogram parameters and platelet indices, the PCT value has never been investigated in epistaxis. To our knowledge, our study is the first to demonstrate a relationship to PCT values and epistaxis.

The Fibrin Glue Application Enhances Surgical Success Rate in Endonasal Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy With Lacrimal Sac Preservation.

The purpose of this study to compare lacrimal sac flap preserving techniques with or without fibrin glue in patients undergoing endoscopic endonasal dacryocystorhinostomy. A retrospective study included 132 patients who underwent unilateral endonasal dacryocystorhinostomy between February 2011 and March 2016. Patients were divided into 2 groups: the nonfibrin glue group (n = 66) and fibrin glue anastomosis group (n = 66). Surgical success was defined as the patients' subjective report of relief of epiphora and objective endoscopic confirmation of ostium patency confirmed by a positive functional dye test. These parameters were compared between the 2 groups. Both groups were similar, in terms of demographic and clinical characteristics. The surgical success rate was significantly higher in the fibrin glue anastomosis group (95.5%) than in the nonfibrin glue group (84.8%; P = .041). Complication rate was 6.1% in the nonfibrin glue group, whereas in the fibrin glue anastomosis group, it was 4.5%. The complication rate was similar in both groups (P = .99). Creation of an anastomosis between the lacrimal sac flaps and the nasal mucosa using fibrin glue improves the outcome of endonasal endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy.

Hot nasal packing with hot saline irrigation for hemostasis after adenoidectomy: A prospective randomized controlled study.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of hot posterior nasal packing and hot saline irrigation in bleeding control after adenoidectomy. METHODS: A total of 130 patients scheduled for adenoidectomy were included in the study, and randomized into two groups at the beginning of the surgical operation. After adenoidectomy, saline impregnated tampon, and saline irrigation at room temperature (22 °C) was applied to the patients in one group while 50 °C saline impregnated tampon and saline irrigation at the same temperature were applied to the patients in the other group. We recorded hemostasis for up to 3 min after tamponade for bleeding control, and the amount of bleeding into the nasopharynx. RESULTS: The age of the patients ranged from 1.5 to 13 years (mean ± SD: 6.07 ± 3.08 years, and 5.33 ± 2.55 years, 22 °C and 50 °C saline irrigation groups, respectively). There were 37 males and 28 females in the 22 °C saline group, while 34 males and 31 females in the 50 °C saline group. When comparing the two groups, there was no statistically significant difference in terms of duration of hemostasis (p = 0.64). However, bleeding scores at 2 nd min after the tamponade were significantly lower in the 50 °C saline group (p = 0.007). The amount of bleeding in the 50 °C saline group was also significantly lower than the 22 °C saline group (p = 0.015). CONCLUSION: In this study, application of 50 °C saline impregnated tampon, and hot saline irrigation was found to be more effective in the control of bleeding after adenoidectomy by reducing the amount of bleeding compared to 22 °C saline impregnated tampon application and saline irrigation at 22 °C. However, hot nasal packing and hot saline irrigation did not affect duration of hemostasis and cauterization.

Fine needle aspiration biopsy: in the diagnosis of salivary gland neoplasms compared with histopathology.

Fine needle aspiration biopsy is commonly used for pre operative evaluations of salivary gland masses. We would like to focus on this diagnostic tool for the salivary gland lesions by reviewing Ankara Oncology Hospital's case lists. Cytological and postoperatively histological reassessment is done for 115 cases. Fine needle aspiration biopsy's sensitivity was 80.8 %, specificity 95.1 %, positive predictive value was 84 % and negative predictive value was 93.9 %. False positive range was 4.9 % and false negative range was 19.2 %. Salivary gland masses can be assessed by cytology preoperatively.