A rare cause of adult-onset bilateral vocal cord paralysis.

A 72-year-old man initially presented to the ENT outpatient department after 20 years with increasing intermittent episodes of dyspnoea and stridor. Flexible nasendoscopy revealed bilateral vocal cord paralysis with the cords in a medial position. He subsequently underwent urgent tracheostomy. He has six similarly affected family members across three generations all requiring tracheostomy to maintain an adequate airway. Follow-up and genetic testing have revealed mutation of the dynactin 1 gene leading to distal hereditary motor neuropathy type 7b. This is a rare occurrence causing this condition to be reported in only three families previously throughout the world.

Pregnancy tumour of the external auditory canal: treatment in clinic.

We present the case of a 29-year-old woman with a symptomatic lobular capillary haemangioma (pregnancy tumour) arising from the external ear canal. A literature review shows this to be an uncommon lesion in a rare location. The lesion was successfully diagnosed and treated in clinic with complete resolution and no recurrence.

Practice parameters and financial factors impacting developmental-behavioral pediatrics.

OBJECTIVE: Little has been published about the professional activities of developmental-behavioral (DB) pediatricians. To better understand the settings in which DB pediatricians work, allocation of their professional time, and how financial considerations impact their practice, the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics surveyed its membership. METHOD: An extensive on-line three-part survey was conducted in 2006-2007 assessing sociodemographic characteristics, practice descriptors, coding and billing practices, productivity goals and perceived pressures among Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatric's 438 physician members. RESULTS: Of the pediatricians responding, representing all regions of the United States, 93% were DB pediatrics subspecialty board certified or eligible. The majority was practicing DB pediatrics full-time (73%); and 67% were exclusively in academic settings. All reported seeing patients, 84% reported teaching, 76% reported having administrative responsibilities, and 46% reported conducting research. Despite having non-clinical responsibilities, full-time equivalent positions included an average of 25 hours per week in direct patient care and 14.5 hours per week (37% of clinical time) in indirect patient care. Only 42% reported working with multidisciplinary teams. Salaries varied widely within and across regions. Deficits in billing/coding practices, awareness of personal clinical productivity, and familiarity with national productivity benchmarks were identified. CONCLUSIONS: DB pediatricians work in diverse settings nationwide. They provide considerable time in indirect patient care, which is poorly reimbursed in general and relative to direct patient care. The results of this survey offer opportunities for provider, institutional and payer education.

Video and CD-ROM as a training tool for performing neurologic examinations of 1-year-old children in a multicenter epidemiologic study.

In lieu of traditional training of examiners to identify cerebral palsy on a neurologic examination at age 1 year, we proposed an alternative approach using a multimedia training video and CD-ROM we developed after a two-step validation process. We hypothesized that use of CD-ROM interactive training will lead to reliable and valid performance of the neurologic examination by both pediatric neurologists and nonpediatric neurologists. All examiners were asked to take one of six interobserver variability tests found on the CD-ROM on two occasions. In the first interobserver variability evaluation, 89% (531 of 594) of the responses agreed with the gold standard responses. Following annotated feedback to the examiners about the two items that had a 60% correct rate, the correct response rate rose to 93% (114 of 123). In the second interobserver variability evaluation, 88% (493 of 560) of the responses agreed with the gold standard responses. Following annotated feedback to the examiners about the four items that had a 70% correct rate, the correct response rate rose to 96% (104 of 108). Interactive CD-ROM examination training is an efficient and cost-effective means of training both neurologists and non-neurologists to perform structured neurologic examinations in 1-year-old children. It provides an effective means to evaluate interobserver variability, offers a route for feedback, and creates an opportunity to reevaluate variability, both immediately and at periodic intervals.

Outcomes of submandibular duct relocation: a 15-year experience.

Drooling is common in patients with neurological disability and a major factor affecting quality of life. Management of this problem is best carried out by a team approach using surgical and non-surgical methods. Submandibular duct relocation is a commonly performed procedure with low complication rate. This procedure has been carried out in 56 patients over the last 14 years at the Belfast City Hospital by the senior author. All the patients underwent physiotherapy for six months before they were selected for surgery. All the patients were over five years of age and most had severe neurological impairment. For the purposes of this study, all the patients were followed by a questionnaire regarding symptomatic improvement, parent satisfaction and complication rate. All case notes were also reviewed retrospectively. Parental satisfaction was high and drooling was significantly reduced in 49 cases. The main complication was ranula formation seen in five cases. The most significant area of parental concern was post-operative pain. It is important to counsel the parents regarding the post-operative pain relief as well as failure rate of the procedure. It can be concluded that this procedure is a safe and highly successful procedure, which significantly improves the quality of life.