Orbital Exenteration and Brachytherapy for the Treatment of Pediatric, Fusion-positive, Recurrent Rhabdomyosarcoma.

A 20-month-old boy presented with biopsy-proven recurrent alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma without metastasis. He was previously treated with multiagent chemotherapy and external beam irradiation showing a complete response. Upon relapse, he was treated with chemotherapy, orbital exenteration, and brachytherapy. Customized, intraoperative brachytherapy has potential to limit the sequelae associated with radiation adjuvant therapy.

The Need for Multidisciplinary Hospital Teams for Injection Drug Use-related Infective Endocarditis.

Injection drug use-related infective endocarditis (IDU-IE) is a complex disease with increasing incidence. Although universally recognized that IDU-IE requires antibiotics and often requires cardiac surgery, most patients do not receive addiction treatment which substantially increases their risk of recurrent IDU-IE from drug use recurrence. Accordingly, a multidisciplinary approach integrating addiction treatment may benefit patients with IDU-IE. We describe the format and structure of a team called the Multidisciplinary Endocarditis Evaluation Team (MEET) whose purpose is to optimize, formalize, and standardize the care of patients with IDUIE. Given the complexity of IDU-IE, MEET is comprised of addiction medicine, anesthesia, cardiology, cardiac surgery, infectious disease, case management, nursing, and social work. MEET strived to be acceptable to patients and families to support their preferences and values. MEET focused treatment of IDU-IE on the patient's medical and surgical needs with attention to the patients' underlying substance use disorder as an essential component.

Intravenous (IV) cefazolin with oral probenecid: A novel daily regimen for the management of Methicillin Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) bacteremia in a patient with renal dysfunction.

A 78 year old man developed a methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) post-operative wound infection following an elective L2-L4 laminectomy. He was treated with surgical debridement which was to be followed by a planned 6 weeks course of cefazolin. However, two weeks post debridement, a follow-up MRI revealed an L3-L5 epidural abscess, septic arthritis and vertebral osteomyelitis prompting repeat surgical debridement. No purulence was noted, and operative cultures were negative for growth. His hospital course was complicated by acute kidney injury and a renal biopsy reveled crescentic glomerulonephritis consistent with post infectious glomerulonephritis. He was treated with daptomycin, followed by oral linezolid. Five months after his original laminectomy, he developed purulent drainage from his back wound. Blood cultures grew MSSA and a repeat aspirate done by interventional radiology also grew MSSA. He improved with nafcillin and was transitioned to telavancin on discharge to facilitate once daily treatment. While on telavancin he developed increasing back pain and fever. Therefore, the regimen was changed to IV cefazolin and oral probenecid for five weeks followed by oral cephalexin to complete a total of 12 weeks of therapy. There is no evidence of disease recurrence one year after completion of therapy. IV cefazolin with oral probenecid may represent a once daily IV treatment option for patients with MSSA bacteremia and kidney disease.

Rehabilitation of a patient after a total maxillectomy with a 2-piece magnetically retained obturator: A clinical report.

After ablative surgery, especially a total maxillectomy, an obturator is commonly used as a method of reconstruction. However, the loss of a palatal denture-bearing area and vestibular retentive undercuts leaves an anatomically deficient base on which to construct the definitive prosthesis. As a result, retention and stability is compromised. A solution to the retention problem is to construct an obturator that engages undercuts and scar bands. Engagement of all undercuts can lead to a prosthesis that is too cumbersome and difficult to insert, especially in a patient with scars after radiation. In this article, a technique for creating a 2-piece magnetic obturator that engages the nasal scar band is described.

Three-dimensional printed definitive cast for a silicone obturator prosthesis: A clinical report.

For patients with head and neck cancer requiring a maxillectomy, obturator prostheses help with quality of life. These patients routinely require adjuvant oncologic treatments with significant adverse effects. Treatment sequelae can leave patients with difficulty speaking and swallowing, reduced salivary function, reduction in maximal incisal opening, and at risk of osteoradionecrosis. A 55-year-old African-American woman presented with significant trismus and reduction in maximal incisal opening after treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the left maxillary sinus. She had received a left total maxillectomy with adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation treatments. With her reduced opening, she was no longer able to insert her interim obturator prosthesis, which caused difficulty speaking and nasal regurgitation. A cone beam computed tomography scan was made of the patient's maxillectomy defect. From the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine file, a definitive cast was 3-dimensionally printed to fabricate a flexible silicone obturator prosthesis. This treatment has allowed the patient to return to a functional quality of life and could help other patients in similar situations.

Fabrication of a custom brachytherapy appliance.

This article reviews the prosthodontic and laboratory steps in the fabrication of a custom brachytherapy appliance. This technique is described through the treatment of a patient with recurrent orbital rhabdomyosarcoma. After a non-eyelid-sparing orbital exenteration of a 7-year-old boy, an impression of the orbital defect was captured to fabricate a custom brachytherapy appliance with mock catheters. One week later, the prosthesis was placed in the orbit, and the device was loaded with radiation catheters to deliver targeted radiation. The prosthesis was secured with Velcro straps fitted into slots made in the prosthesis and wrapped around the back of the patient's head. Brachytherapy appliances have been used to provide effective therapy for patients receiving care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Restoration of Facial Form and Lip Competence in a Patient with a Midfacial Defect.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck can be treated with a combination of modalities. There is an esthetic and functional compromise with midfacial defects secondary to ablative surgery and adjuvant therapies for SCC. Osteoradionecrosis, tissue contracture, and trismus, are all negative side effects of treatment and can impact a patient's function and possibly their nutrition. In this report, we describe a procedure for fabrication of a prosthesis that provides cosmetic improvement and labial competence to maintain caloric intake.

Use of Orbital Conformer to Improve Speech in Patients with Confluent Maxillectomy and Orbital Defects.

The basic objective in prosthetic restoration of confluent maxillary and orbital defects is to achieve a comfortable, cosmetically acceptable prosthesis that restores speech, deglutition, and mastication. It is a challenging task complicated by the size and shape of the defects. The maxillary obturator prosthesis often satisfies the objective of adequate deglutition; however, orbital defects that are not obturated in the medial, septal, or posterior walls allow air to escape, negatively impacting phonation. This article describes a technique to achieve favorable prosthetic rehabilitation in a patient with a maxillectomy and ipsilateral orbital exenteration. The prosthetic components include maxillary obturator, orbital conformer, and orbital prosthesis connected using rigid magnetic attachments.

Fabrication of a provisional nasal prosthesis.

A technique for making a provisional nasal prosthesis for interim use after the ablation of a midface tumor is described. The technique is especially useful for the re-creation of a nasal form in an expedient and cost-effective manner. A preoperative definitive cast, or moulage, of the patient that includes a nasal form is used to fabricate a vacuum form of the midface. The vacuum form is evaluated on the patient, the extension is adjusted, and an external adhesive knit liner is applied to give the appearance of a contoured nasal bandage. The provisional nasal prosthesis is attached with medical adhesive tape and removed daily by the patient. The prosthesis is easily replaced during the course of treatment and has been found to be functional and esthetically acceptable to those patients receiving care from the Dental Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Cryptococcal lymphadenitis: an unusual initial presentation of HIV infection.

Lymphadenopathy can occur at any stage of HIV infection, with multiple aetiologies including reactive, infectious and malignant. An accurate and timely diagnosis has obvious implications for treatment. We report cryptococcal lymphadenitis as the presenting manifestation of HIV infection. The diagnosis in our patient was eventually confirmed with a lymph node biopsy. Fine needle aspiration cytology has been shown to be a rapid and cost-effective method, which has been used in the diagnosis of lymphadenopathy in HIV infection, and could have been used to make an earlier diagnosis in our patient.

Extrapulmonary tuberculosis: an overview.

In the 1980s, after a steady decline during preceding decades, there was a resurgence in the rate of tuberculosis in the United States that coincided with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome epidemic. Disease patterns since have changed, with a higher incidence of disseminated and extrapulmonary disease now found. Extrapulmonary sites of infection commonly include lymph nodes, pleura, and osteoarticular areas, although any organ can be involved. The diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis can be elusive, necessitating a high index of suspicion. Physicians should obtain a thorough history focusing on risk behaviors for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and tuberculosis. Antituberculous therapy can minimize morbidity and mortality but may need to be initiated empirically. A negative smear for acid-fast bacillus, a lack of granulomas on histopathology, and failure to culture Mycobacterium tuberculosis do not exclude the diagnosis. Novel diagnostic modalities such as adenosine deaminase levels and polymerase chain reaction can be useful in certain forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. In general, the same regimens are used to treat pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis, and responses to antituberculous therapy are similar in patients with HIV infection and in those without. Treatment duration may need to be extended for central nervous system and skeletal tuberculosis, depending on drug resistance, and in patients who have a delayed or incomplete response. Adjunctive corticosteroids may be beneficial in patients with tuberculous meningitis, tuberculous pericarditis, or miliary tuberculosis with refractory hypoxemia.