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Objectives: Foreign bodies (FBs) in external auditory canal (EAC) can occur at any age but are especially common in children and adolescents. The aims of the study were to evaluate the clinical characteristics of EAC FBs in children and adolescents and to discuss their proper management. Methods: A retrospective medical chart review was performed on patients who were treated for EAC FBs in a tertiary referral center from January 2007 to December 2017. We investigated the parameters of age, sex, type of FB, sedation method, complications, and removal strategy. Results: Of 284 patients, 176 (62.0%) were male. Peak incidences were noted at the ages of 3 to 6 years and 17 to 18 years. The frequently observed FBs were insects, followed by air-gun pellets, cotton balls, marbles, and earrings. Forty-one (14.4%) EAC FBs were removed with the naked eye, while 243 (85.6%) were removed under microscope in the otolaryngology department. Of these patients, 23 (9.5%) were administered sedatives and 1 (4.1%) needed general anesthesia. During or after the removal procedure, 4 (15.5%) patients had complications of EAC abrasion or laceration (42, 14.8%), and tympanic membrane perforation (2, 0.7%). Conclusions: External auditory canal FB showed a distinct characteristic of incidence regarding age, related to removal strategies. Characteristics of FB must be considered for safe removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the operative procedure of transoral robotic selective neck dissection for papillary thyroid carcinoma. A 28‐year‐old woman, diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma and lymph node metastasis at right level IV, underwent total thyroidectomy, central neck dissection, and selective neck dissection involving levels III and IV via the transoral robotic approach. A 1.5‐2‐cm central incision was made near the base of the lower lip frenulum, and two lateral incisions were made close to the oral commissure. An additional right axillary port was made to place a third robotic instrument for counter‐traction. The operation was completed successfully without conversion to the conventional transcervical approach. The working space and surgical view were enough to perform selective neck dissection of levels III and IV. There were no major postoperative complications. Transoral robotic selective neck dissection of levels III and IV is feasible and safe in selected patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Caputo fractional numerical differentiation is directly built from the original FDE so that the discrete formula for the solution has an explicit form. • The numerical formula for the Caputo fractional derivative is not involved by the derivative of y (t) so that a simple linear interpolate approximation can be easily applied. • For a fractional order ν ≈ 0, the stable perturbation technique is proposed compared with other methods. • Numerical performance can be boosted up by the technique of the decomposition of ν in case of that ν ≈ 1. This paper proposes new direct and acceleration numerical methods for solving Fractional order Differential Equations (FDEs). For the Caputo differential operator with fractional order 0 < ν < 1, we rewrite the FDE as an equivalent integral form circumventing the derivative of the solution by the integral by parts. We obtain a discrete formulation directly from the integral form using the Lagrange interpolate polynomials. We provide truncation errors depending on the fractional order ν for linear and quadratic interpolations, which are O (h 2 − ν) and O (h 3 − ν) respectively. In order to overcome a strong singular issue as ν ≈ 0 we propose the explicit predictor-corrector scheme with perturbation technique. In case of ν ≈ 1, the truncation errors are reduced by O (h) and O (h 2). In order to accelerate the convergence rate, we decompose ν = ν / 2 + ν / 2 , convert the FDE into the system of FDEs, and apply the predictor-corrector scheme. Numerical tests for linear, nonlinear, variable order and time-fractional sub-diffusion problems demonstrate that the proposed methods give a prominent performance. We also compare the numerical results with other high-order explicit and implicit schema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]