RESUMO
A 49-year-old previously healthy woman presented with acute painless visual loss in the right eye, a right relative afferent pupillary defect, and a normal fundus examination. She was diagnosed with retrobulbar "optic neuritis" and given a course of intravenous steroids. Despite treatment, however, she continued to lose vision and serial visual field testing confirmed a junctional scotoma in the fellow eye. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a mass at the junction between the right optic nerve and the anterior aspect of the chiasm and a right frontal lesion that proved to be multicentric glioblastoma multiforme. Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of aggressive neoplasm in the differential diagnosis of retrobulbar optic neuritis.
RESUMO
Objectives: To identify pre-operative radiological parameters that are able to predict the functional outcomes of open partial horizontal laryngectomy (OPHL). Methods: The present retrospective study concerned a cohort of 96 patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent pre-operative radiological staging with contrast-enhanced computerised tomography of the neck, and subsequent supracricoid or supratracheal laryngectomy. Univariate and multivariate analyses were run to assess the prognostic value of the main demographic and surgical variables, and the pre-operative cephalometric values, respectively, in terms of predicting patients' functional outcomes. Results: Multivariate analysis showed that a larger anteroposterior cross-sectional dimension of the aero-digestive tract in the mid-retroglossal area, and a greater distance between the genial tubercle and the hyoid bone in the mid-sagittal plane correlated significantly with better functional outcomes in terms of decannulation rate at discharge. Conclusions: Our findings show that larger pre-operative upper aero-digestive tract diameters and volumes coincide with better post-operative functional outcomes after OPHL.