Efficacy of tympanostomy tube placement with adjuvant adenoidectomy in children less than 4 years of age.

OBJECTIVE: About 8.6 % of children in the United States undergo tympanostomy tube (TT) placement every year. Of these, 24.1 % require a second set of tubes. Adjuvant adenoidectomy in children over 4 years is thought to improve the efficacy of TT. The goal of this study is to characterize the efficacy of adjuvant adenoidectomy at the time of TT placement in children under 4 years, to further improve middle ear function. METHODS: All patients undergoing TT placement alone or TT placement with adenoidectomy from 2014 to 2016 were reviewed. The primary outcome was need for subsequent tube placement. RESULTS: A total of 409 patients were included in the study (60.6 % male, 39.4 % female). Median age at initial TT placement was 18 months (range 5-48 months); extreme outliers for age were removed from further analysis. Patients were followed for 1-8 years. 250 patients received TT alone while 159 received TT with adenoidectomy. 120 required a second set of tubes. There was a statistically significant benefit to those undergoing adjuvant adenoidectomy with TT placement: 33.6 % of those receiving TT alone required subsequent tubes, whereas only 22.6 % of patients who underwent TT with adjuvant adenoidectomy required reinsertion (X2 = 5.630, p = 0.018). Adjuvant adenoidectomy in patients 0-48 months was associated with decreased likelihood of requiring subsequent tube placement (OR = 0.578, p = 0.018). There was an increased likelihood of experiencing otorrhea in those receiving TT alone compared to the TT with adenoidectomy group (X2 = 4.353, df = 1, p = 0.0369). CONCLUSION: Adjuvant adenoidectomy at the time of initial TT placement may have a role in the management of chronic middle ear disease in patients younger than 4 years. However, further studies and prospective randomized studies are needed to explore if this benefit can also be seen in children without chronic rhinosinusitis or nasal obstruction. The benefit-risk ratio from adenoidectomy and modifications in anesthesia technique in the case of adjuvant adenoidectomy should also be further explored.

A Rare Case of PL-7-Associated Immune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathy With Isolated Dysphagia as the Presenting Symptom.

Immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy (IMNM) is a rare, progressive disease that accounts for about 19% of all inflammatory myopathies. Dysphagia occurs in about 20%-30% of IMNM patients. This case results in the third presumptive instance of IMNMwith dysphagia as the initial symptom. Given that isolated dysphagia in IMNM is atypical to the conventional symptoms in the late stage of the disease, it is critical for clinicians to have a high degree of suspicion for IMNM due to the aggressive nature of the disease and its refractoriness to treatment. Additionally, this case also highlights an atypical autoantibody, PL-7, being positive in an IMNM patient who presents with dysphagia as an initial symptom.

Endotipsitis in an Immunocompetent Patient With Lactobacillus Bacteremia.

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is a procedure commonly performed to decompress portal venous pressure since the early 1990s. Endotipsitis, which refers to persistent bacteremia caused by endovascular infection of the TIPS stent, is a rare but serious complication of this procedure. Very few cases of endotipsitis have been reported worldwide. We report the case of an immunocompetent patient diagnosed with endotipsitis, an atypical risk factor for Lactobacillus infection. This case report adds to the literature on underreported complications of TIPS, highlighting an urgent need for introducing clinical practice guidelines regarding the definition, diagnosis, and treatment of endotipsitis.

High-fat diet increases pain behaviors in rats with or without obesity.

Obesity is associated with increased risk for chronic pain. Basic mechanisms for this association are poorly understood. Using a milder version of a radicular pain model, local inflammation of the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), we observed marked increases in mechanical and cold allodynia in rats of both sexes that were maintained on a high-fat diet (HFD) for 6 weeks prior to DRG inflammation. Notably, this increase in pain-related behaviors occurred in both Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley rats despite the fact that the 6-week HFD exposure induced obesity (e.g., increased insulin, leptin, weight, and percent body fat) in the Long-Evans, but not Sprague-Dawley, strains. This suggested that HFD, rather than obesity per se, increased pain behaviors. Increased pain behaviors were observed even after a much shorter (1 week) exposure to the HFD but the effect was smaller. HFD also increased behavioral responses and paw swelling to paw injection of complete Freund's adjuvant, a model of peripheral inflammatory pain. No change was detected in plasma cytokine levels in HFD rats. However, increased macrophage infiltration of the DRG was observed in response to the HFD, absent any pain model. The results suggest that HFD can increase pain even when it does not cause obesity.