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Objective: The objective of the study is to examine the utility of positron emission tomography (PET) for staging and restaging after treatment of paranasal sinus carcinomas., Study Design: Retrospective data review was done., Subjects and Methods: Patients selected underwent PET for sinonasal neoplasms from 2003 to 2008 at a tertiary care referral center., Results: Seventy-seven scans were reviewed from 31 patients. The pathologies included olfactory neuroblastoma (n = 9), squamous cell carcinoma (n = 6), sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (n = 6), sinonasal melanoma (n = 6), and minor salivary gland carcinomas (n = 4). The positive predictive value of studies performed for restaging at the primary, neck, and distant sites were 56%, 54%, and 63%; negative predictive values were 93%, 100%, and 98%, respectively. During restaging, 32% of patients were accurately upstaged secondary to neck or distant site involvement., Conclusion: Positron emission tomography serves as a useful adjunct to conventional imaging in the management of sinonasal malignancies. Negative studies are effective in predicting absence of disease as seen in the consistently high-negative predictive values. Positive studies need to be viewed cautiously given the high rate of false-positive studies. When viewed in conjunction with clinical examination, endoscopic assessment, and focused biopsies, they may effectively result in a more accurate assessment of the extent of disease., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: T1 and T2 tonsillar squamous cell cancer with limited neck disease can be managed with single-modality radiation or surgery. Over 11 years, 17 patients underwent radical tonsillectomies; and 33 patients underwent radiation-based treatments for T1 and T2 and N0 to N2a tonsil cancer. Patients were intended to receive single-modality treatment based on presentation; however, some ultimately received adjuvant treatments., Methods: A retrospective chart review to compare overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and locoregional control (LRC) between the groups was used., Results: In surgical group, of 17 patients, 11 underwent surgery alone, 3 underwent surgery and radiation, and 3 underwent surgery with concurrent chemoradiation. Five-year OS for the surgical and radiation groups was 93% and 72%, respectively (no significance achieved). Five-year DSS rates (93% and 80%) and LRC (69% and 89%) similarly did not yield any significant difference., Conclusion: Surgery remains a viable option in the management of T1 and T2 tonsillar cancers with comparable LRC, OS, and DSS., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The aim of the study was to determine the prognostic impact of preepiglottic space (PES) involvement on local failure after concurrent chemoradiation therapy for squamous cell carcinoma., Materials and Methods: Retrospective chart review of patients who underwent concurrent chemoradiation therapy for T3 or T4 laryngeal, T4 hypopharyngeal, and T3 or T4 oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma were eligible for inclusion. Patients were then stratified by the presence or absence of PES tumor involvement. A multivariate analysis was performed on the presence of recurrence using the following pretreatment variables: PES involvement, tumor extent, pathologic cell differentiation, lymph node involvement, age, and sex., Results: A total of 102 patients were included in the study. Twenty-seven (28%) patients had documented PES involvement. Mean follow-up for all patients was 46 months. Involvement of the PES was not significantly associated with local tumor persistence or recurrence (P = .69). No other variables significantly impacted tumor recurrence., Conclusion: Preepiglottic space involvement does not negatively impact local tumor control after concurrent chemoradiation therapy., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

We report an episode of transient, severe hypertension occurring within 2 minutes of injection of 1% lidocaine with 1:100,000 U of epinephrine in a patient taking midodrine for orthostatic hypotension. We hypothesize that the patient's autonomic nervous system was dangerously susceptible to the effect of local anesthetic when combined with the vasoactive systemic effect of midodrine. Surgeons should minimize the use of vasoconstrictors in patients treated with midodrine to avoid hypertensive complications.

Objective: Five reports have examined unilateral submandibular gland aplasia. The purposes of this report are to demonstrate submandibular gland aplasia leading to contralateral gland hypertrophy in the setting of oral cavity cancer and to discuss the corresponding diagnostic and management challenges., Study Design: This study is a case report of a 60-year-old male who presented with pain on the right side of the mobile tongue., Method: This report uses literature review., Results: A 60-year-old male presented with pain on the right side of the mobile tongue. Subsequent results of punch biopsy revealed squamous cell carcinoma in situ with foci of microinvasion of the tongue. Head and neck examination revealed no abnormalities. The patient underwent a wide-local excision of the tongue lesion. Postoperative computed tomographic (CT) scan showed an asymmetric mass on the ipsilateral side of the cancer in the region of the submandibular gland. The gland was noted to be abnormally large. A diagnosis of contralateral submandibular gland aplasia was made. The patient is cancer-free at 2 years postlocal excision. Salivary gland aplasia is an extremely rare disorder and is often associated with various congenital syndromes. Unilateral submandibular gland aplasia is even rarer with ours representing the sixth reported case. Aplasia is believed to stem from a regional disturbance in early fetal development. Common symptoms can include dysphagia, dry mouth, decreased taste, and tooth decay. In the presence of a history of oral cavity cancer, unilateral submandibular gland aplasia poses a challenge during postoperative cancer follow-up., Conclusions: Unilateral submandibular gland aplasia in the setting of oral cavity cancer poses a unique challenge for cancer follow-up. Hypertrophy of the submandibular gland on the other side can masquerade as nodal metastasis. Head and neck examination as well as CT scan can be inconclusive. Regular confirmatory tests such as fine needle aspiration biopsy and positron emission tomography/CT for cancer detection is extremely useful for detecting recurrence.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck most often spreads via direct extension or through lymphatics to regional lymph nodes. This is a unique case of a cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal dorsum with direct vascular invasion of the facial vein. This was initially incorrectly identified as a regional level Ib lymph node metastases, and the intervening venous structures were neither extirpated during an initial surgery nor recognized during subsequent radiation therapy. The patient then presented with a sizable recurrence in the right suborbital subcutaneous tissue region extending into the neck and internal jugular vein. During further resection, direct tumor invasion into the facial vein was pathologically confirmed. This unusual involvement is presented as the first documented report of regional spread via tumor thrombosis within the facial vein as demonstrated in the facial vein with a tumor thrombus, as demonstrated by computed tomography and microscopic findings.

Introduction: The concept of donor bone marrow transplantation has been successfully used in human solid organ transplantation to increase recipient chimerism. The development of recipient chimerism is associated with a decreased need for immunosuppression and even donor-specific tolerance. In this study, we attempted to augment recipient chimerism by the transfer of donor bone marrow at the time of rat laryngeal transplant., Study Design: Experimental study in rats., Methods: The study used a well-established semiallogeneic rat laryngeal transplant model with partial major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-mismatched Lewis-Brown-Norway donors and Lewis recipients. Donor bone marrow was introduced at transplantation via (1) intravascular injection and (2) transfer of a vascularized femoral bone graft. Recipients were treated with an established immunosuppressive regimen consisting of everolimus and anti-alphabetaTCR monoclonal antibody for a 7-day perioperative course. Animals received a 5-day boost of the same regimen at 90 days posttransplantation. Parathyroid hormone levels and histological examination were used for rejection surveillance and scoring., Results: Animals treated with intravenous bone marrow injection followed by perioperative and pulsed immunosuppression commonly demonstrated early rejection (90%). Animals receiving transfer of vascularized donor femur had an average rejection score of 2.9 (scale, 1-6) at 180 days posttransplantation. Mixed-lymphocyte reaction did not demonstrate donor-specific tolerance in the latter group, and chimerism was less than 1%., Conclusions: In the rat laryngeal transplant model, donor bone marrow does not consistently lead to augmentation of peripheral chimerism using our established pulsed immunosuppression protocol. In many cases, rejection occurred earlier than animals not receiving bone marrow. This may be due to several different factors including (1) an element of graft-vs-host disease, (2) inability to establish bone marrow engraftment due to our short-term perioperative immunosuppression regimen, or (3) preferential rejection of donor bone marrow cells.