Search

Asthma, as well as all chronic diseases, involves many factors that affect the patient, its family and its social relations. The spontaneous crisis that the patients may suffer during their daily activities may be caused by different reasons: normal or extreme exercises, the use of anesthetics and their impact on the mucociliar hygiene and the immunological response of the respiratory airway, and the association of physiological conditiOnS such as pregnancy or of pathological conditions such as cystic fibrosis and gastroesophagic reflux. For these reasons it is necessary to know the treatment of asthma in these situations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Eustachian tube joints middle ear with nasopharynx and has three functions: to ventilate middle ear, draining secretions to nasopharynx and protecting. Secretions flow has a one way to nasopharynx, to protect middle ear from naso- and oropharinx infections. OBJECTIVE To determine the capacity of mucocilliary clearance function in patients with post-traumatic tympanic membrane perforation and intact membrane. PATIENTS AND METHODS Thirty patients with edges within 20 to 60 years, 20 with post-traumatic tympanic perforation and 10 with intact membrane. Fluorescein was applied intra and transtympanic (0.2 cc) and observed the clearance with the help of a flexible nasofibroscopy. We visualized the entrance of the Eustachian tube at the torus tubarius measuring the time it took to reach the nasopharynx. RESULTS We found in patients with tympanic membrane perforation the mucocilliary clearance was much more rapid with a duration of less than 3 minutes in a total of 19 patients (95%), and 1 patient (5%) it took more than 5 minutes due to thickening of the middle ear mucosa. The patients with intact tympanic membrane of which 3 (30%) had clearance of more than 3 minutes and 7 (70%) more than 5 minutes. CONCLUSIONS The mucocilliary function of the Eustachian tube in patients with tympanic membrane perforation is conserved, and that this is a good method of evaluating the permeability of the Eustachian tube in patients that will undergo myringoplasty in the future with a very good prognosis and successful outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]