Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND: In the pediatric patient population, both the pathology and the surgical managements of seventh cranial nerve palsy are complicated by the small size of the patients. Adding to the technical difficulty is the relative infrequency of the diagnosis, thus making it harder to become proficient in the management of the condition. The magnitude of the functional and aesthetic deficits these children manifest is significantly troubling to both the patient and the parents, which makes immediate attention, treatment, and functional restoration essential. METHODS: A literature search using PubMed (http://www.pubmed.org) was undertaken to identify the current state of surgical management of pediatric facial paralysis. RESULTS: Although a multitude of techniques have been used, the ideal reconstructive procedure that addresses all of the functional and cosmetic needs of these children has yet to be described. Certainly, future research and innovative thinking will yield progressively better techniques that may, one day, emulate the native facial musculature with remarkable precision. CONCLUSION: The necessity for surgical intervention in children with facial nerve paralysis differs depending on many factors including the acute/chronic nature of the defect as well as the extent of functional and cosmetic damage. In this article, we review the surgical procedures that have been used to treat pediatric facial nerve paralysis and provide therapeutic facial reanimation

Maternal obesity is associated with short duration of breastfeeding, and many obese women also have large breasts. To determine if health professionals who support lactating women can distinguish between these maternal characteristics as obstacles to breastfeeding, the authors conducted a mail survey of 242 Danish health professionals. They thought that initiating was more difficult (P < .0001) than continuing breastfeeding for women with large breasts and/or obesity. These difficulties were thought to be lowest for women with large breasts, higher for obese women, and highest for obese women with large breasts (P < .0001). These difficult ratings were significantly related in a complex manner to the respondents' personal characteristics and type of training. These findings indicate the importance of recognizing and treating large breasts and maternal obesity as separate obstacles to successful breastfeeding and that interventions to reduce these obstacles should be designed to account for characteristics of the person providing them.

This study investigated a potential independent association between hypovitaminosis D and suspected nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in a nationally representative sample of the US adolescents. Data from 1630 subjects 12-19 years of age were examined using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001-2004. The vitamin D status of subjects was categorized into quartiles of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Subjects with serum ALT > 30 U/L were classified as having suspected NAFLD. Data regarding age, sex, race, BMI, and poverty level were also analyzed in bivariate and multivariate analyses using SAS and SUDAAN software. Suspected NAFLD was identified in 12.1% of adolescents in the lowest quartile compared to 6.9% of adolescents in the second quartile, 8.0% in the third quartile, and 13.17% in the highest quartile of serum 25(OH)D concentrations (P = .05). In analyses utilizing vitamin D as a continuous variable, no independent association was found between Vitamin D levels and rates of elevated ALT levels. In multivariate analyses, higher risks for suspected NAFLD were observed in males and overweight adolescents; however, vitamin D status was not found to be independently associated with suspected NAFLD after adjusting for obesity.