Comparison of death and survival cervical necrotizing fasciits cases.

BACKGROUND: Cervical Necrotizing Fasciitis (CNF) is associated with a high mortality rate. The occurrence of mediastinitis with CNF may increase mortality up to 70%. AIMS: We aimed to identify the differences between surviving and deceased cases. METHODS: The present study was conducted retrospectively by scanning the files of 16 patients between the ages of 19-71 who were diagnosed with CNF. Patients were divided into two groups as the surviving patient group (SPG) and the deceased patient group (DPG). Both groups were compared in terms of age, gender, Laboratory Risk Indicator for Necrotizing Fasciitis (LRINEC) score, duration of symptom onset to hospital admission, use of antibiotherapy prior to admission, duration of hospitalization, presence of diabetes mellitus (DM), presence of dental etiology, mediastinitis, and respiratory distress at the time of admission. RESULTS: Diabetes mellitus was the most common comorbid disease. 5 out of 7 deceased patients had DM. Dental events were the most common etiology. Rapid surgical debridement and airway management was the first treatment method. The most frequently isolated species in the culture was Streptococcus. 6 of 11 patients who developed mediastinitis deceased at the end of the process. CONCLUSION: Dental pathologies mostly play a role in the etiology. It is obvious that dentists, another occupational group that frequently encounters this patient group, have a critical role in this process. Therefore, precise attention should be given to dental problems in patients with diabetes, and hospitalization and initiation of broad-spectrum antibiotherapy should be considered in case of suspicion of deep neck infection.

Evaluation of the language development of children with cochlear implant users living in a multilingual environment.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of second language exposure on Turkish speaking skills in cochlear implant (CI) users. METHODS: Children living in mono and bilingual families, who underwent unilateral cochlear implant due to congenital severe to profound, or profound hearing loss, were examined. The fifty six children with a chronological age younger than 8 and a language age of 2-6 years were included the study. The Denver II Developmental Screening Test was used for identifying of pre-implant speech and development. The duration of implant use was also documented. Languages spoken at the patients' homes were divided into 4 categories: T/K: Predominantly Turkish/Kurdish, K/T: Predominantly Kurdish/Turkish, T/T: Just Turkish, A/T: Predominantly Arabic/Turkish. The CAP (Categories of Auditory Performance), SIR (Speech Intelligibility Rating), The Turkish Version Test of The Early Language Development (TELD-3:T),. The IT-MAIS (Infant Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale), MUSS (Meaningful Use of Speech Scale) were used to evaluate the language development of the patients. Changes in IT-MAIS and MUSS scores in the last two years were also evaluated. RESULTS: The all children received their implants before age of 6 years. The average duration of cochlear implant use of children was 38,43 ± 11,64 months. The mean pre-implant speech age was 6,8 ± 2,13 months. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of the CAP and SIR scores. In TELD-3:T scores, there was no significant difference between the groups except for the receptive raw scores. The Arabic/Turkish group had significantly lower receptive raw scores. This group also had significantly lower mother educational level. In IT-MAIS and MUSS scores, no significant difference was found between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our study supports the opinion that exposure to a second language at home does not affect the acquisition of the language of education in children using CI.

Hemangioma arising from external jugular vein mimicking neck mass.

Hemangiomas are common benign tumors which can develop in any part of the body. Despite their common nature, hemangiomas arising from blood vessels are very rare. In this article, we present a very rare case of hemangioma which was originated from external jugular vein. The hemangioma was totally excised after the external jugular vein was ligated from both sides and no complication was observed.