Robinson Koji Tsuji

Relação entre consumo de drogas e comportamento sexual de estudantes de 2o grau de São Paulo

OBJECTIVE: Investigate the relationship between drug consumption and sexual behavior in a population of high school students attending a public school in the city of Sao Paulo. METHOD: Questionnaires (a total of 689) were gathered from students with ages between 14 and 21 years old who responded to this study. The questionnaires contained questions about the consumption of psychoative substances and sexual behavior. Then, sexual behavior was compared for differences between drug users and non-users. RESULTS: Illicit drug users (n=366) demonstrated a higher prevalence of complete sexual intercourse: 80,8% of users versus 57,6% of non-users (n=305), p<0,0001); earlier initiation of sexual activity (on average 15,2 years in users versus 15,7 in non-users, p<0,005); more payments for sexual acts (31,1% of users versus 15% of non-users, p<0,001); and a trend toward lesser usage of condoms (56,8% of users versus 65,3% of non-users, p<0,10). The results also were similar when we studied each type of drug separately and the associaton of different types of drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Frequency of drug use was not related to sexual behavior. Alcohol and cannabis were the drugs most associated with sexual risk behavior. Crack use was associated with earlier initiation of sexual activity.

Surgical complications in 550 consecutive cochlear implantation

UNLABELLED Cochlear implantation is a safe and reliable method for auditory restoration in patients with severe to profound hearing loss. OBJECTIVE To describe the surgical complications of cochlear implantation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Information from 591 consecutive multichannel cochlear implant surgeries were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were followed-up for at least one year. Forty-one patients were excluded because of missing data, follow-up loss or middle fossa approach. RESULTS Of 550 cochlear implantation analyzed, 341 were performed in children or adolescents, and 209 in adults. The mean hearing loss time was 6.3 ± 6.7 years for prelingual loss and 12.1 ± 11.6 years for postlingual. Mean follow-up was 3.9 ± 2.8 years. Major complications occurred in 8.9% and minor in 7.8%. Problems during electrode insertion (3.8%) were the most frequent major complication followed by flap dehiscence (1.4%). Temporary facial palsy (2.2%), canal-wall lesion (2.2%) and tympanic membrane lesion (1.8%) were the more frequent minor complications. No death occurred. CONCLUSION There was a low rate of surgical complications, most of them been successfully managed. These results confirm that cochlear implant is a safe surgery and most surgical complications can be managed with conservative measures or minimal intervention.

Auditory brainstem implant outcomes and MAP parameters: report of experiences in adults and children.

UNLABELLED The auditory brainstem implant (ABI) was first developed to help neurofibromatosis type 2 patients. Recently, its use has been recently extended to adults with non-tumor etiologies and children with profound hearing loss who were not candidates for a cochlear implant (CI). Although the results has been extensively reported, the stimulation parameters involved behind the outcomes have received less attention. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to describe the audiologic outcomes and the MAP parameters in ABI adults and children at our center. METHODS Retrospective chart review. Five adults and four children were implanted with the ABI24M from September 2005 to June 2009. In the adult patients, four had Neurofibromatosis type 2, and one had postmeningitic deafness with complete ossification of both cochleae. Three of the children had cochlear malformation or dysplasia, and one had complete ossified cochlea due to meningitis. Map parameters as well as the intraoperative electrical auditory brainstem responses were collected. Evaluation was performed with at least six months of device use and included free-field hearing thresholds, speech perception tests in the adult patients and for the children, the Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) and (ESP) were used to evaluate the development of auditory skills, besides the MUSS to evaluate. RESULTS The number of active electrodes that did not cause any non-auditory sensation varied from three to nineteen. All of them were programmed with SPEAK strategy, and the pulse widths varied from 100 to 300 μs. Free-field thresholds with warble tones varied from very soft auditory sensation of 70 dBHL at 250 Hz to a pure tone average of 45 dBHL. Speech perception varied from none to 60% open-set recognition of sentences in silence in the adult population and from no auditory sensation at all to a slight improvement in the IT-MAIS/MAIS scores. CONCLUSION We observed that ABI may be a good option for offering some hearing attention to both adults and children. In children, the results might not be enough to ensure oral language development. Programming the speech processor in children demands higher care to the audiologist.

Carina® and Esteem®: A Systematic Review of Fully Implantable Hearing Devices

Objective To review the outcomes of the fully implantable middle ear devices Carina and Esteem regarding the treatment of hearing loss. Data Sources PubMed, Embase, Scielo, and Cochrane Library databases were searched. Study Selection Abstracts of 77 citations were screened, and 43 articles were selected for full review. From those, 22 studies and two literature reviews in English directly demonstrating the results of Carina and Esteem were included. Data Extraction There were a total of 244 patients ranging from 18 to 88 years. One hundred and 10 patients were implanted with Carina and with 134 Esteem. There were registered 92 males and 67 females. Five studies provided no information about patients’ age or gender. From the data available, the follow-up ranged from 2 to 29.4 months. Data Synthesis The comparison of the results about word recognition is difficult as there was no standardization of measurement. The results were obtained from various sound intensities and different frequencies. The outcomes comparing to conventional HAs were conflicting. Nevertheless, all results comparing to unaided condition showed improvement and showed a subjective improvement of quality of life. Conclusion There are still some problems to be solved, mainly related to device functioning and price. Due to the relatively few publications available and small sample sizes, we must be careful in extrapolating these results to a broader population. Additionally, none of all these studies represented level high levels of evidence (i.e. randomized controlled trials).

Auditory pathways' maturation after cochlear implant via cortical auditory evoked potentials ,

INTRODUCTION Evaluation of cortical auditory evoked potentials in children with cochlear implants has been proven to be an effective method for assessing cortical maturation after electrical stimulation. OBJECTIVE To analyze the changes in latency values of cortical auditory evoked potentials before and three months after cochlear implant use. MATERIAL AND METHODS This was a case-control study with a group of five children using cochlear implant awaiting activation of the electrodes, and a control group composed of five normal-hearing children. Auditory electrophysiological assessment was performed by the testing of the cortical auditory evoked potentials at two different periods: prior to cochlear implant activation and after three months of cochlear implant use. RESULTS A significant decrease in the latency time of the P1 component was observed after three months of stimulation via cochlear implant, whose values were higher than those from the control group. The younger the child was at electrode activation, the greater the reduction in latency of the P1 component. CONCLUSION Changes in the characteristics of cortical auditory evoked potentials can be observed in children who receive cochlear implants; these changes are related to the age of intervention, suggesting a rapid maturation of the auditory pathways after electrical stimulation.

Resultados audiológicos do implante coclear em idosos

Segundo dados do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica, a populacao de idosos cresceu 47,8% na ultima decada no Brasil. Parte desta populacao tem surdez severa a profunda, nao se beneficiando com o uso dos aparelhos auditivos convencionais. Desse modo, torna-se necessaria a indicacao do implante coclear. Objetivo: Analisar os beneficios do implante coclear nos idosos com relacao a audibilidade, ao reconhecimento de fala e ao uso do telefone. Material e Metodo: Estudo retrospectivo transversal por meio da analise de prontuarios de pacientes com faixa etaria acima de 60 anos usuarios de implante coclear ha pelo menos 1 ano. Resultados: Foram analisados 14 prontuarios. A media de idade dos pacientes foi de 63,07 anos. A media dos limiares tonais entre 500Hz,1kHz,2kHz e 4kHz antes da implantacao foi de 113dBNA. Nenhum dos pacientes, antes de implantar, conseguia discriminar frases em contexto aberto e fechado, apenas 3 conseguiam fazelo com uma media de 17% de acertos. Apos um ano de uso de implante, a media dos limiares em campo passou a ser de 34 dBNA, a discriminacao de frases em contexto aberto de 93,57% e 71% dos pacientes ja conseguiam estabelecer uma conversa ao telefone. Conclusao: Os pacientes idosos usuarios de implante coclear apresentaram ganhos auditivos relevantes, com melhora significativa da compreensao em contexto aberto e no uso de telefones.

Neurofibromatosis 2: hearing restoration options

UNLABELLED Neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2) is an autosomal dominant disease in which hearing loss is predominant. Auditory restoration is possible using cochlear implants (CI) or auditory brainstem implant (ABI). OBJECTIVE To assess the auditory results of CI and ABI in NF2 patients and review the literature. METHODS Four NF2 patients were prospectively evaluated. They were submitted to tumor resection followed by ipsilateral CI or ABI depending on cochlear nerve preservation. Long term auditory results were described for CI (12 months) and ABI (48 months). RESULTS All patients achieved auditory perception improvements in their hearing thresholds. The CI patient does not recognize vowels or sentences. The 3 ABI patients discriminate 70% of vowels and 86% in the 4-choice test. One of them does not recognize sentences. The other two recognize 100% of closed sentences and 10% and 20% of open sentences. CONCLUSION The choice of implant type to restore hearing to NF2 patients will relay on anatomical and functional cochlear nerve preservation during tumor resection surgery. Although our experience was different, the literature shows that if this condition is achieved, CI will offer better auditory results. If not, ABI is recommended.

USE OF PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES AND SEXUAL RISK BEHAVIOR IN ADOLESCENTS

This study investigated the relationship between the use of illicit drugs and sexual-risk-behavior in a sample of students aged 14 to 21 years at a public high school in São Paulo in 1997. A total of 689 useable questionnaires documented the sample in consumption of psychoactive substances and sexual behavior. Sexual behavior of drug users and non-users was compared regarding history of complete sexual intercourse, age at first sexual intercourse, use of condoms, sexual intercourse with sex workers, and prostitution. Drug users (N = 366) presented a higher frequency of complete sexual intercourse (80.8% of users versus 53.5% of non-users), (N = 323, p<.001), a younger age at first sexual intercourse (on average 15.2 years in users versus 15.7 among non-users, p<.005), a trend toward lower use of condoms (56.7% among users versus 65.3% among non-users, p<.1), and more sexual intercourse with sex workers (31.1% among users versus 15% among non-users, p<.001). Sexual-risk-behavior increased with the number of drugs used. Alcohol and marijuana use were associated with the highest sexual-risk-behavior. These data are essential for the development of more specific preventive strategies, focusing on male alcohol and marijuana users.

Estudo anatômico da cóclea para confecção de instrumental para a cirurgia de implante coclear com 2 feixes de eletrodos em cócleas ossificadas

Cochlear ossification, mainly secondary to meningitis, prevents the complete conventional cochlear implant insertion. Implants with two electrode bundles shorter than the conventional ones were specifically developed for ossified cochleas. However, during surgery there is a high risk of damaging the internal carotid artery (ICA). Therefore, measuring cochleostomy depth in order to insert the two electrode bundles would greatly increase the procedures safety. AIMS: 1) Find the distances between cochleostomies and ICA in cadaver temporal bones. 2) Design an instrument that can be used in cochlear implant surgery to introduce an implant with two bundles of electrodes. STUDY DESIGN: Experimental prospective. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 21 temporal bones from cadavers we performed: 1) canal wall down mastoidectomy; 2) cochleostomy in the cochlear basal and middle turns; 3) ICA identification; 4) Length determination between the cochleostomies and the artery. RESULTS: the average distance ± standard deviation obtained for the upper tunnel was of 8.2 ± 1.1 mm and for the lower tunnel it was of 8.1± 1.3 mm. The shortest distance found was of 6.5 mm for the upper tunnel and 6.0 mm for the lower tunnel. CONCLUSION: Despite the values calculated, we concluded that the best value to be considered in creating a surgical instrument are the minimum lengths obtained for each one of the cochlear turns, because this is the safest way to avoid damaging the ICA, that can be fatal.

Evaluation of Intracochlear Trauma Caused by Insertion of Cochlear Implant Electrode Arrays through Different Quadrants of the Round Window.

Hypothesis. This study aimed to evaluate whether there is a difference in the degree of intracochlear trauma when the cochlear implant electrode arrays is inserted through different quadrants of the round window membrane. Background. The benefits of residual hearing preservation in cochlear implant recipients have promoted the development of atraumatic surgeries. Minimal trauma during electrode insertion is crucial for residual hearing preservation. Methods. In total, 25 fresh human temporal bones were subjected to mastoidectomy and posterior tympanotomy. The cochlear implant electrode array was inserted through the anterosuperior quadrant of the round window membrane in 50% of the bones and through the anteroinferior quadrant in the remaining 50%. The temporal bones were dehydrated, embedded in epoxy, serially polished, stained, viewed through a stereomicroscope, and photographed with the electrode arrays in situ. The resulting images were analyzed for signs of intracochlear trauma. Results. Histological examinations revealed varying degrees of damage to the intracochlear structures, although the incidence and severity of intracochlear trauma were not influenced by the quadrant of insertion. Conclusions. The incidence and severity of intracochlear trauma were similar in all samples, irrespective of electrode array insertion through the anterosuperior or anteroinferior quadrant of the round window membrane.