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Objectives: Wearing a face mask is a simple way to slow the virus transmission during the current Covid-19-pandemic. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of a face mask, worn by the speaker, on the speech intelligibility of normal hearing children and adolescents., Design: Using the Freiburg monosyllabic test for sound field audiometry in silence and with background noise (+25 dB speech-to-noise-ratio (SNR)), this study tested the speech reception of 40 children and adolescents, aged 10 to 18. The speaker was shown on a screen either wearing or not wearing a face mask, according to the test arrangement., Results: The combination of a speaker wearing a face mask with background noise showed a distinct impairment of speech intelligibility whereas these two factors had no significant impact on their own., Conclusions: The results of this study could help to improve the quality of future decision-making processes about the usage of instruments to halt the spread of covid-19-pandemic. Furthermore, the results could be taken as baseline for comparison with vulnerable parts of society like hearing- impaired children and adults., Competing Interests: Die Autorinnen/Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Background: Sulfido-Leukotrienes are important inflammatory mediators of bronchial asthma, intolerance of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), polyposis nasi and allergic rhinitis. Receptorantagonists like Montelukast constitute a well-established asthma- and ASA intolerance-therapy. The aim of our study was to evaluate changes in patients Health-Related-Quality-of-Life (HRQL) during Montelukast-monotherapy of nasal polyposis., Methods: The study was performed in a prospective, double blind and placebo-controlled matter. The study included 30 patients of our ENT outpatient's dept. (77 % male, mean age 49 yrs), suffering from nasal polyposis grade II to IV. Polyps were endoscopically graded, nasal Eosinophilic Cationic Protein (ECP) was measured, and HRQL-score was taken prior to and four weeks after Montelukast-(0 - 0 - 10 mg) compared to placebo. An established HRQL-questionnaire - including 25 items, summarized in 6 symptom-groups - was used. Given was a symptom-score of 1 (not troubled) to 4 (extremely troubled)., Results: Patients treated with Montelukast improved their nasal symptoms (Delta HRQL-score 0.58 +/- 0.94, P < 0.01), practical problems (Delta HRQL-score 0.42 +/- 0.71, P < 0.05), headaches (Delta HRQL-score 0.38 +/- 0.56, P < 0.05), non-nasal symptoms (Delta HRQL-score 0.35 +/- 0.92, P < 0.05), sleep (Delta HRQL-score 0.26 +/- 0.71) and emotional problems (Delta HRQL-score 0.18 +/- 0.75). Intranasal ECP (Delta 210.67 ng/ml +/- 332.68) and polyp grading (Delta 0.72 +/- 1.77) tended to improve as well, but did not reach statistical significance. Patients treated with placebo revealed no significant changes neither in HRQL-score, ECP, nor polyp grading., Conclusions: Montelukast-therapy of nasal polyposis significantly improved patient's HRQL in 4 out of 6 symptom-groups. Measuring HRQL proofed to constitute a more sensitive tool than looking at eosinophilic parameters of inflammation or polyp size.

Background: Leiomyoma and Leiomyosarkoma are not often found in ENT-diseases., Patients: We report on a 62-year old female patient presenting with a 3 x 4 cm tumor in the oropharynx that had developed within a period of about three weeks. The patient complained of increasing dysphagia and dyspnea especially when lying on the left side. To secure breathing the patient had to be primarily ventilated by placing a needle percutaneously through the conical ligament and was then intubated. For this procedure the patient was positioned on the right side. The tumor measuring 3 cm, was removed surgically., Results: The tumor turned out to be a leiomyomatous neoplasia of undetermined malignant potential. Since an unfavourable behaviour of such neoplasms cannot be excluded, patients with tumors of this type should be followed closely., Conclusions: In this case the tumor leads to an acute dyspnoea and a special procedure of anesthesia was necessary. Therapeutic considerations and differential diagnosis of this very rare tumor of the oropharynx are discussed by reviewing the literature.

Suppressed cellular immunity is common in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC). It was demonstrated in previous studies that administration of interleukin 2 (IL-2) results in enhanced antitumoral immunity in vitro as well as in vivo. Since the serum half-life of IL-2 is relatively short, repeated applications are necessary to achieve therapeutically effective serum concentrations, but this strategy might cause severe side effects. Therefore, methods that provide high local cytokine levels over a prolonged period of time without the need for repeated injections are desirable. Gene therapy as an innovative treatment approach using tumor cells stably transduced to produce IL-2 might meet these criteria. In vitro manipulated tumor cells, if readministered in the vicinity of non-manipulated tumor cells, may enhance a specific anti-tumor response in vivo without systemic side effects. The present manuscript reviews the current literature dealing with IL-2-protein and -gene therapy with special emphasis on head and neck cancer. Our own in vitro results with IL-2 gene therapy in conjunction with published data from other authors argue in favour of an in vivo approach for this therapeutic strategy that is currently in progress in our department.