Faculty Bibliography

The endoscopic transsphenoidal approach (ETSA) is a commonly used technique that allows for the minimally invasive removal of sellar and parasellar lesions. Augmented reality (AR) applications in ETSA are hypothesized to enhance intraoperative visualization by integrating a 3D-reconstructed model into the operative field. This study describes the workflow and surgical outcomes associated with the Endoscopic Surgical Navigation Advanced Platform (EndoSNAP, Surgical Theater, Cleveland, OH, USA), an AR platform designed for surgical planning and intraoperative navigation in ETSA for sellar and parasellar lesions. We analyzed a cohort of patients who underwent ETSA tumor resection using EndoSNAP. Preoperative MRI and CT scans were reconstructed and merged into a single 360° AR model using the Surgical Rehearsal Platform software. The model was then imported into EndoSNAP, which was integrated with the endoscope and neuronavigation system for real-time intraoperative use. Patient demographics, tumor characteristics, extent of resection (EOR), and endocrinologic and neurologic outcomes were recorded. Eighteen adult patients with newly diagnosed (83%) and recurrent (17%) tumors were included. Pathologies consisted of pituitary adenoma (72%), craniopharyngioma (11%), meningioma (11%), and chordoma (6%). Optic compression was present in 56% of patients, with preoperative visual deficits in 70% of them. Cavernous sinus invasion was observed in 17% of tumors. Preoperative hormonal excess and insufficiency were noted in 56% and 28% of cases, respectively. The mean preoperative tumor volume was 21.4 ± 17 cm³, which decreased to 0.4 ± 0.3 cm³ postoperatively. The mean EOR was 93.6 ± 3.6%. Postoperative complications included CSF leaks requiring surgical repair (17%), seizures related to pre-existing hemispheric trauma (6%), pulmonary embolism (6%), deep venous thrombosis (6%), and sinusitis (6%). These findings suggest that AR-enhanced visualization through EndoSNAP is a feasible and potentially beneficial adjunct in ETSA for sellar and parasellar tumor resection.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:Fear of recurrence (FoR) is a prevalent and difficult experience among cancer patients. Most research has focused on FoR among breast cancer patients, with less attention paid to characterizing levels and correlates of FoR among oral and oropharyngeal cancer survivors. The purpose was to characterize FoR with a measure assessing both global fears and the nature of specific worries as well as evaluate the role of sociodemographic and clinical factors, survivorship care transition practices, lifestyle factors, and depressive symptoms in FoR. METHODS:Three hundred eighty-nine oral and oropharyngeal survivors recruited from two cancer registries completed a survey assessing demographics, cancer treatment, symptoms, alcohol and tobacco use, survivorship care practices, depression, and FoR. RESULTS:Forty percent reported elevated global FoR, with similar percentages for death (46%) and health worries (40.3%). Younger, female survivors and survivors experiencing more physical and depressive symptoms reported more global fears and specific fears about the impact of recurrence on roles, health, and identity, and fears about death. Depression accounted for a large percent of the variance. Lower income was associated with more role and identity/sexuality worries, and financial hardship was associated with more role worries. CONCLUSIONS:FoR is a relatively common experience for oral and oropharyngeal cancer survivors. Many of its correlates are modifiable factors that could be addressed with multifocal, tailored survivorship care interventions. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS/CONCLUSIONS:Assessing and addressing depressive symptoms, financial concerns, expected physical symptoms in the first several years of survivorship may impact FoR among oral and oropharyngeal cancer survivors.

Motor neurons have highly diverse anatomical, functional and molecular features, and differ significantly in their susceptibility in disease. Extraocular motor neurons, residing in the oculomotor, trochlear and abducens cranial nuclei (nIII, nIV and nVI), control eye movements. Recent work has begun to clarify the developmental mechanisms by which functional diversity among extraocular motor neurons arises. However, we know little about the role and consequences of extraocular motor neuron diversity in eye movement control. Here, we highlight recent work investigating the anatomical, functional and molecular features of extraocular motor neurons. Further, we frame hypotheses where studying ocular motor circuits in the larval zebrafish is poised to illuminate the consequences of motor neuron diversity for behavior.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:Tracheostomy is a commonly performed procedure in Otolaryngology and can be performed in different settings. We evaluate patient characteristics and cost efficacy of tracheostomy at the bedside versus operating room (OR). MATERIALS AND METHODS/METHODS:Retrospective chart review was performed for adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients who underwent tracheostomy from 2020 to 2023. Data and cost of procedures were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS:One hundred and sixty-five patients were included. One hundred and thirty-four (81.2%) patients underwent bedside tracheostomy. Age, sex, and BMI were not significantly different. Average time from consult to procedure and operative time was significantly shorter (p = 0.03; 0.008). There were no differences in postoperative complications, 30-day mortality, ICU length of stay (LOS), or overall LOS. Tracheostomy at the bedside offered a 73.1% cost reduction compared with performed in the OR. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Advantages of bedside tracheostomy include decreased operative time, time from consult to procedure, and cost reduction for the hospital system. We advocate for consideration of bedside tracheostomy when appropriate.

The adoption of large language models (LLMs) in healthcare demands a careful analysis of their potential to spread false medical knowledge. Because LLMs ingest massive volumes of data from the open Internet during training, they are potentially exposed to unverified medical knowledge that may include deliberately planted misinformation. Here, we perform a threat assessment that simulates a data-poisoning attack against The Pile, a popular dataset used for LLM development. We find that replacement of just 0.001% of training tokens with medical misinformation results in harmful models more likely to propagate medical errors. Furthermore, we discover that corrupted models match the performance of their corruption-free counterparts on open-source benchmarks routinely used to evaluate medical LLMs. Using biomedical knowledge graphs to screen medical LLM outputs, we propose a harm mitigation strategy that captures 91.9% of harmful content (F1 = 85.7%). Our algorithm provides a unique method to validate stochastically generated LLM outputs against hard-coded relationships in knowledge graphs. In view of current calls for improved data provenance and transparent LLM development, we hope to raise awareness of emergent risks from LLMs trained indiscriminately on web-scraped data, particularly in healthcare where misinformation can potentially compromise patient safety.

BACKGROUND:Human papillomavirus (HPV) negative oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is associated with worse survival when compared to HPV-positive OPSCC. Primary surgery is one option to intensify therapy in this high-risk group of patients. Unfortunately, the only randomized trial to explore this approach (RTOG 1221) failed to accrue and the role of primary surgery in the treatment of HPV-negative OPSCC remains unanswered. METHODS:A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to examine the outcomes of surgery in the treatment of HPV-negative OPSCC. We used the PRISMA statement for reporting and queried Pubmed, Web of Science and the Cochrane databases for studies examining the use of primary surgery in the treatment of HPV-negative OPSCC. Excluded from analysis were reviews, commentaries, case series with fewer than 10 patients, and studies that included HPV-negative head and neck cancers of mixed sites. Our primary outcomes were 2-year and 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). OS and DFS were pooled using meta-analysis of proportions. RESULTS: = undetermined; 2 studies). CONCLUSIONS:The two- and five-year OS for patients with HPV-negative OPSCC treated with any surgical approach and pathology-directed adjuvant therapy is 84% and 72%, respectively. The two- and five-year OS for HPV-negative OPCSCC treated with transoral surgery and pathology-directed adjuvant therapy is 87% and 82%, respectively.

PURPOSE/UNASSIGNED:Most auditory-perceptual voice research utilizes the judgments of trained listeners rather than everyday listeners with no previous training in speech pathology. Online crowdsourcing of behavioral data from untrained participants is rapidly increasing in popularity but has yet to be a common procedure for auditory-perceptual studies of the voice. The objective of this pilot study was to assess the functionality of this model for judgments of voice by using an online experiment platform to replicate a lab-based, voice-specific age estimation study. METHOD/UNASSIGNED:Fifty crowdsourced untrained listeners estimated the age of a single talker based on audio samples taken from 20 speeches over a 48-year span. The primary outcome was overall age estimation accuracy. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:The crowdsourced age estimations closely matched those of a previous highly controlled in-person laboratory study using the same auditory samples. Listeners generally overestimated the talker's age when the talker was younger and underestimated his age when he was older. The age at which the estimated age equaled the talker's chronological age was 54 years. CONCLUSIONS/UNASSIGNED:Online crowdsourcing may be a feasible modality for auditory-perceptual voice ratings with the potential to add low-cost, high-number options to validate and enhance clinical and laboratory-based studies by (a) including a wider diversity of participants and (b) providing the means for rapidly recruiting more participants. Further research investigating crowdsourced ratings of the complex parameters of voice quality using more listeners is needed to continue supporting this methodology as a tool for perceptual voice research.

BACKGROUND:Aneurysmal bone cysts (ABCs) are slow-growing, expansile bone tumors most often observed in the long bones and lumbar and thoracic spine. Anterior column ABCs of the spine are rare, and few cases have described their surgical management, particularly for lesions with extension into the odontoid process and the bilateral C2 pedicles. In the present case, the authors describe a two-stage strategy for resection of a symptomatic 2.3 × 3.3 × 2.7-cm C2 ABC with cord compression in a 13-year-old patient. OBSERVATIONS/METHODS:Initial tumor debulking was completed via a transoral approach, and resection of the involved region spanning the odontoid process to the C2-3 disc space was continued until visualization of the posterior longitudinal ligament. After appropriate decompression was confirmed, the patient was repositioned prone for removal of the residual tumor among the bilateral C2 pedicles. Posterior instrumentation was placed from the occiput to C4, with an autologous rib graft to encourage fusion. The postoperative recovery was uneventful, and 2-month imaging demonstrated postsurgical changes, resolution of compression, and a stable position of the instrumentation and graft material. LESSONS/CONCLUSIONS:The transoral approach facilitates sufficient exposure for the resection of large odontoid ABCs, and posterior stabilization can reduce the risk of postsurgical cervical subluxation. https://thejns.org/doi/10.3171/CASE2485.