Faculty Bibliography

The evidence for the existence of secondary endolymphatic hydrops in patients with perilymphatic fistulas is reviewed and the indications for treatment of such hydrops in patients with fistulas are discussed. The indications for and results of combined fistula repair by middle ear exploration and endolymphatic sac surgery in fifteen patients are presented. The preliminary results in these patients appear encouraging. Patients with recurrent perilymphatic fistulas, or with symptoms of attacks of spinning vertigo after fistula repair, and those who present with severe imbalance with findings of a perilymphatic fistula appear to be candidates for combined fistula and sac surgery.

A 30-year retrospective analysis of 50 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the salivary glands was conducted, including 42 patients with parotid tumors and eight with submandibular lesions. Clinical staging, performed for 48 patients in whom adequate data were available, yielded the following results: Stage I, 17%, Stage II, 12%, Stage III, 71%. Surgery was the primary therapy in 45 patients (86%). The determinate 'cure' rate at 5 and 10 years was 24 and 18%, respectively, for patients with parotid lesions and 20% for those with submandibular tumors. As with other malignant salivary gland tumors, advanced stage and pain as a presenting symptom were ominous findings. Locoregional recurrence was the usual site of failure in both parotid (51%) and submandibular (67%) cases. Radical surgical extirpation, preserving the facial nerve when possible, remains our treatment of choice. It is anticipated that planned postoperative radiotherapy will reduce our high locoregional recurrence rates

Monostotic fibrous dysplasia, an unusual disease that can involve the temporal bone, will frequently cause an acquired stenosis of the external auditory canal. Three patients with this disorder who presented with occluded canals are described. Two individuals developed external canal cholesteatomas medial to the obstruction, one of whom eventually developed a postauricular abscess and infected draining sinus. The third patient presented with a restenosis nine months following canalplasty. The cases reported illustrate three surgical criteria necessary to manage these unusual cases successfully: removal of sufficient diseased bone to create a patulous canal; resurfacing denuded bony areas with thin split-thickness skin grafts to prevent soft tissue contractions; an adequate meatoplasty. Postoperatively, the reconstructed canals have remained patent and stable during follow-up periods ranging from one to four years. Clinical, radiographic, and pathologic features of fibrous dysplasia are discussed, the differential diagnosis is presented, and the relevant literature is reviewed

In 46 patients with renovascular hypertension who underwent renal angioplasty, proteinuria (more than 150 mg/24 hours) was more pronounced than in patients with essential hypertension. The highest levels were seen in patients in whom 1 renal artery was totally occluded. There was no difference between patients with unilateral vs bilateral renal artery stenosis. Proteinuria could not be correlated with serum creatinine level, and in 28% of the patients with renovascular hypertension, proteinuria was present despite a normal creatinine level. Renal angioplasty produced a significant diminution in proteinuria when it resulted in a cure of the hypertension, but no diminution was achieved if blood pressure did not decrease.

To determine if adjuvant methotrexate (MTX), escalated weekly to toxicity, could improve disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival by preventing recurrent disease, 60 patients with potentially resectable stage III or IV squamous head and neck carcinomas were stratified by primary site, stage, and nutritional status, then randomized by pairs to receive or not receive adjuvant MTX. All received standard surgery and postoperative radiation therapy. Five patients were taken off study because of unresectability at the time of surgery, leaving 55 evaluable patients. There were no statistically significant imbalances in known prognostic factors between the two treatment arms. MTX was begun at 40 mg/m2 and escalated 10 mg/m2 weekly (four doses preoperatively; four doses postoperatively, preradiation therapy; eight doses postradiation therapy) to mucosal or hematologic toxicity. The median peak MTX dose achieved was 80 mg/m2. Although three patients were hospitalized with MTX toxicity, none died of MTX toxicity. No patient receiving MTX had disease progression during treatment, and there was no increase in postoperative complications. Thirty-two patients died (median survival, 19 months); 23 patients are alive with median follow-up of 43 months. There was no statistically significant difference in actuarial DFS (P = 1.0) or overall survival (P = .61). Although patients on the MTX arm appeared to have less local and regional recurrences at first recurrence (thus more distant metastases), this did not reach statistical significance (P = .06). There was no significant difference between the sites of recurrence at death or last follow-up (P = .38).

Carcinoma of the parathyroid gland is a disease only rarely encountered in clinical practice. As most of these tumors retain the ability to manufacture active parathyroid hormone, most patients with the disease present with hypercalcemia, many times symptomatic. Since the tumor accounts for only 0.5% to 4.0% of cases of primary hyperparathyroidism, the diagnosis of parathyroid carcinoma may be unsuspected and delayed. The clinical index of suspicion should be elevated if there is a palpable neck mass, an exceptionally high serum calcium level, and/or recurrence of hypercalcemia following surgery. We review two patients with parathyroid carcinoma who presented with hypercalcemia. In both, the diagnosis of malignancy was made only after microscopic examination of the operative specimen. Surgery consisted of wide local excision in both cases; radiation therapy was administered in one. Postoperative disease-free status is now 23 and 37 months. One of the patients had a history of radiation therapy to the larynx 20 years prior to the development of parathyroid carcinoma. Also reviewed in this paper are the clinical and histopathologic criteria for making the diagnosis of parathyroid carcinoma and the therapeutic approaches and prognosis of this unusual tumor.

The antecedents of marital stability (divorce or remaining married) and marital satisfaction (within the group that remains married) were investigated with a panel of 300 couples who were followed from their engagements in the 1930s until 1980. Twenty-two of the couples broke their engagements; of the 278 couples who married, 50 got divorced at some time between 1935 and 1980. Personality characteristics (measured by acquaintance ratings made in the 1930s) were important predictors of both marital stability and marital satisfaction. The three aspects of personality most strongly related to marital outcome were the neuroticism of the husband, the neuroticism of the wife, and the impulse control of the husband. In combination, the 17 major antecedent variables were moderately predictive of a criterion variable composed of both marital stability and marital satisfaction (R = .49). The three major aspects of personality accounted for more than half of the predictable variance. The remaining variance was accounted for by attitudinal, social-environment, and sexual history variables.