Denise Manica

Association Between Length of Intubation and Subglottic Stenosis in Children

To investigate the role of the length of intubation and other risk factors in the development of laryngeal lesions in children undergoing endotracheal intubation in an intensive care unit and to determine the incidence of subglottic stenosis (SGS).

Laringoplastia com balão em crianças com estenose subglótica em evolução: experiência de um hospital terciário

UNLABELLED Management of subglottic stenosis (SGS) in children is still a challenge to Otorhinolaryngologists. Balloon laryngoplasty (BLP) is an endoscopic procedure, first described in 1984 for the treatment of airway stenosis. It shows promising results and seems to be more effective than other procedures. AIM To present our experience with BLP in children with SGS. MATERIAL AND METHOD Prospective study of children diagnosed with acute subglottic stenosis, i.e., stenosis with granulation tissue. They underwent direct laryngoscopy under general anesthesia and dilatation of the stenotic segment with angioplasty balloon. They were followed up and a second laryngoscopy was performed one week later. RESULTS Eight children were included in this study between June 2009 and October 2010. Four had Grade 3 SGS, three had Grade 2 SGS and one had Grade 1 SGS. By the second examination, two children presented with asymptomatic Grade 1 SGS, while the other six presented with normal airway and remained asymptomatic. CONCLUSION BLP seems to be an effective treatment for acute SGS. We need more studies to refine our knowledge concerning efficacy rates, safety and indications for balloon dilatation.

The use of high‐frequency audiometry increases the diagnosis of asymptomatic hearing loss in pediatric patients treated with cisplatin‐based chemotherapy

Cisplatin may cause permanent cochlear damage by changing cochlear frequency selectivity and can lead to irreversible sensorineural hearing loss. High‐frequency audiometry (HFA) is able to assess hearing frequencies above 8,000 Hz; hence, it has been considered a high‐quality method to monitor and diagnose early and asymptomatic signs of ototoxicity in patients receiving cisplatin.

Incidence and endoscopic characteristics of acute laryngeal lesions in children undergoing endotracheal intubation

INTRODUCTION Acute laryngeal lesions after intubation appear to be precursors of chronic lesions. OBJECTIVE To describe the incidence and type of acute laryngeal lesions after extubation in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). METHODS A cohort study involving children from birth to <5 years, submitted to intubation for more than 24h in the PICU of an university hospital. In the first eight hours after extubation, a flexible fiberoptic laryngoscopy (FFL) was performed at the bedside. Those with moderate to severe abnormalities underwent a second examination seven to ten days later. RESULTS 177 patients were included, with a median age of 2.46 months. The mean intubation time was 8.19 days. Seventy-three (41.2%) patients had moderate or severe alterations at the FFL, with the remaining showing only minor alterations or normal results. During follow-up, 16 children from the group with moderate to severe lesions developed subglottic stenosis. One patient from the normal FFL group had subglottic stenosis, resulting in an incidence of 9.6% of chronic lesions. CONCLUSION Most children in the study developed mild acute laryngeal lesions caused by endotracheal intubation, which improved in a few days after extubation.

Post-intubation acute laryngeal injuries in infants and children: A new classification system.

OBJECTIVE To compare the Classification of Acute Laryngeal Injuries (CALI) with other classifications to determine which of these offers the greatest sensitivity and specificity in predicting the development of subglottic stenosis. METHODS All children intubated for the first time in the pediatric intensive care unit were included and subjected to flexible fiber-optic laryngoscopy (FFL) within 8 h of extubation. Their injuries were categorized using the CALI, as well as adapted classifications from Lindholm, Colice and Benjamin. The children were followed up to determine who developed subglottic stenosis. RESULTS This study included 194 children, with a median age of 2.67 months. The sensitivity and specificity of the CALI were 90% and 73%, respectively. The CALI showed greater specificity than the adapted classifications from Colice and Benjamin (p < 0.001 for both), and greater sensitivity than the adapted classification from Lindholm (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Based on the CALI, 90% of children who developed subglottic stenosis had moderate to severe injuries on the initial FFL. The CALI includes all injury types described by Benjamin, as well as a proposed severity scale for these lesions, and was predictive of the development of chronic laryngeal injury.

Accuracy of clinical swallowing evaluation for diagnosis of dysphagia in children with laryngomalacia or glossoptosis

To investigate the accuracy of clinical evaluation of swallowing in a sample of children with laryngomalacia or glossoptosis and describe the prevalence of dysphagia in each of these diseases, as well as characterize the swallow response to speech and language therapy interventions.

Undersedation is a risk factor for the development of subglottic stenosis in intubated children

OBJECTIVE To analyze the level of sedation in intubated children as a risk factor for the development of subglottic stenosis. METHODS All patients between 30 days and 5 years of age who required endotracheal intubation in the pediatric intensive care unit between 2013 and 2014 were included in this prospective study. They were monitored daily and COMFORT-B scores were obtained. Flexible fiber-optic laryngoscopy was performed within eight hours of extubation, and repeated seven to ten days later if the first examination showed moderate to severe laryngeal injuries. If these lesions persisted and/or if the child developed symptoms in the follow-up period, microlaryngoscopy under general anesthesia was performed to evaluate for subglottic stenosis. RESULTS The study included 36 children. Incidence of subglottic stenosis was 11.1%. Children with subglottic stenosis had a higher percentage of COMFORT-B scores between 23 and 30 (undersedated) than those who did not develop subglottic stenosis (15.8% vs. 3.65%, p=0.004). CONCLUSION Children who developed subglottic stenosis were less sedated than children who did not develop subglottic stenosis.

Retrospective Study of a Series of Choanal Atresia Patients

Introduction Although it has been more than 250 years since the first description of choanal atresia (CA), there are still doubts about this abnormality. The differences between unilateral and bilateral forms are seldom discussed. Objectives Aggregate data from patients diagnosed with CA, grouping patients with unilateral and bilateral forms. Methods Retrospective study. Results Eighteen patients were included: 12 (66.6%) presented bilateral atresia, of which 77.8% were mixed bony-membranous type and 22.2% were pure bony type. From the 12 patients with bilateral atresia, 10 presented related malformations, 3 of whom had CHARGE syndrome (coloboma, heart defects, choanal atresia, retardation of growth and development, genitourinary problems, ear abnormalities). From the remaining 6 patients with unilateral atresia, only 2 showed malformations, 1 renal and 1 cardiac. All patients with unilateral atresia needed only 1 surgical procedure, and patients with the bilateral form needed a median of 2.85 interventions (p = 0.003). The median age of surgical procedure in the unilateral group was 6 years, ranging from 6 months to 18 years, and in the bilateral group was 25 days, ranging from 6 days to 6 years (p = 0.003). The median interval between diagnosis and surgery was 9 months in the unilateral group, ranging from 1 month to 18 years, and in the bilateral group was 1 day, ranging from 1 day to 2 months (p = 0.001). Discussion and Conclusions Success rates with the endoscopic approach vary from 62 to 100%. Nonetheless, most of these reports present results without considering the number of compromised sides. In our opinion, unilateral and bilateral cases involve distinct patients (taking into account the related malformations), have diverging clinical presentations, and show discrepant restenosis rates and therefore could be considered in different groups of analysis.

Rhinosinusitis in autologous and allogeneic bone marrow transplantation: a retrospective study on the performance of imaging studies on severity and prognostic evaluation

The objective of this work was to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic performance of a traditional imaging staging system for rhinosinusitis in the bone marrow transplantation (BMT) scenario. A retrospective cohort study was carried out at a bone marrow transplantation referral center involving subjects who underwent allogeneic or autologous BMT from September 1st 2005 to September 31st 2007 and later evolved with rhinosinusitis during the BMT inpatient period. Patients who had a previous history of sinusal disease or otolaryngologic surgery were excluded from the study. Data concerning mortality, the treatment of rhinosinusitis and BMT outcomes were extracted from medical files. The collected parameters were compared to the Lund-Mackay tomographic staging system score which was calculated based on available tomography films of each patient. A total of 85 BMT were performed and 23 allogeneic and 14 autologous (43.5%) BMT patients evolved with rhinosinusitis during transplantation. A significant association with LMS was found for the absolute neutrophil count (ANC), with a higher ANC (>500/mm3) correlating with a higher LMS (Mean LMS for lower ANC 6.08 and higher ANC 9.71 points, p<0.05). Need for surgical management and post-BMT admissions, the resolution of the rhinosinusitis and overall mortality had no significant correlation with LMS. Patients with less than 500 neutrophils/mm3 are known to be prone to more severe infections, but paradoxically showed lower LMS when developing rhinosinusitis. However, there were no differences in the main outcomes between those with higher and lower LMS. This would possibly lead to an equivocal assumption of a less severe disease. Severely neutropenic patients are probably not able to mount an effective inflammatory response capable of inducing significant tomographic abnormalities. So, this imaging study would not be able to adequately evaluate the extent of sinusal involvement. We thus conclude that LMS is not an adequate staging system to evaluate the severity of BMT sinusal disease. Rev. Bras. Hematol. Hemoter.

Tracheostomy in children: a ten-year experience from a tertiary center in southern Brazil.

INTRODUCTION Children may require tracheostomy due to many different health conditions. Over the last 40 years, indications of tracheostomy have endorsed substantial modifications. OBJECTIVE To evaluate pediatric patients warranted tracheostomy at our Hospital, in regard to their indications, associated comorbidities, complications and decannulation rates. METHODS Retrospective study concerning patients under 18 years of age undergoing tracheostomy in a tertiary health care center, from January 2006 to November 2015. RESULTS 123 children required a tracheostomy after ENT evaluation during the study period. A proportion of 63% was male, and 56% was under one year of age. Glossoptosis was the most common indication (30%), followed by subglottic stenosis (16%) and pharyngomalacia (11%). The mortality rate was 31%. By the end of this review, 35 children (28.4%) had been decannulated, and the fewer the number of comorbidities, the greater the decannulation rate (0.77±0.84 vs. 1.7±1.00 comorbidities; p<0.001). CONCLUSION Tracheostomy in children is a relatively frequent procedure at our hospital. The most common indications are glossoptosis and subglottic stenosis. A high mortality rate was found, potentially substantiated by the high number of critical care patients with chronic neurological conditions in this cohort. Our decannulation rate is slightly below other series, probably because of the greater amount of patients with comorbidities.