PRESENTATION OF CASE: We report three cases of extraluminal fish bone migration with diverse clinical presentations and complications. The first patient had mild throat symptoms and a fish bone that travelled through the neck and migrated towards the subcutaneous tissue without causing complications. The second patient developed deep neck abscess and thoracic complications as a result of the migrated foreign body, but recovered after surgical exploration and foreign body removal. The third patient presented late in sepsis and upper airway obstruction, subsequently succumbed to multiorgan failure before any surgical intervention.
DISCUSSION: Thorough physical and endoscopy examinations are essential in patients with fish bone ingestion. Normal endoscopic findings in a symptomatic patient should always raise the suspicion of a migrated fish bone. A radiographic imaging study is often helpful in locating the foreign body and potential complications. The migrated fish bone that acts as the source of infection in the neck should be traced and removed surgically. The resulting abscess, if present, must be drained. The management of a migrated fish bone can be challenging and often require multi-discipline collaboration.
CONCLUSION: The migration of the ingested fish bone outside the upper aerodigestive tract can cause serious complications and death in some cases. Clinicians should always maintain a high level of suspicion towards extraluminal migration in a patient with a history of fish bone ingestions but normal endoscopic findings. We emphasize the importance of early recognition and prompt surgical intervention to remove the migrated fish bone to minimise the potential morbidity and mortality.
DESIGN AND SETTING: Descriptive cross-sectional study in a tertiary center.
PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: The subjects are 274 audio files of voices of patients undergoing thyroid, parathyroid surgeries, and known VCP due to other neck surgeries. Voice assessments were done by three endocrine surgeons (A, B, and C) with 20, 12, and 4 years of surgical experience.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Sensitivity and specificity of surgeon documented voice assessment in patients with underlying VCP. Subjects' acoustic analysis and Voice Handicap Index (VHI-10) were analyzed.
RESULTS: Raters A, B, and C have sensitivity of 63.6%, 78.8%, and 66.7%, respectively. Inter-rater reliability shows substantial agreement (ƙ = 0.67). VHI-10 has sensitivity of 75.8% and strong correlation of 0.707 (p value <0.001) to VCP. Subjects with VCP have notably higher jitter, shimmer, and noise-to-harmonic ratio compared to normal subjects with sensitivity of 74.2%, 71.2%, and 72.7%, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: The results for surgeons documented voice assessment did not reach the desired sensitivity for a screening tool for patients with underlying VCP. Other tools such as VHI-10 and acoustic analysis may not be used as standalone tools in screening patients with underlying VCP. Routine preoperative laryngeal examination may be recommended for all patients undergoing thyroid, parathyroid, or other surgeries that places the laryngeal nerves at risk.
SIMILAR CASES PUBLISHED: None specified.
CASE PRESENTATION: We discuss a case of right vocal fold cryptococcus infection in a healthy, immunocompetent 71-year-old man with no history of inhaled corticosteroid, presented with hoarseness and intermittent aspiration symptom for 1 year duration. Further examination showed right anterior vocal fold mass with presence of right vallecular cyst.
CLINICAL DISCUSSION: Patient underwent direct laryngoscopy, excision of right vocal fold mass and marsupialization of vallecular cyst. Histopathological examination revealed cryptococcal infection. Patient subsequently treated with oral fluconazole 400 mg daily for 6 months. To date, hoarseness and aspiration symptoms have resolved.
CONCLUSION: We are sharing our experience in managing laryngeal cryptococcus infection in an immunocompetent patient where the associated risk factors discussed in previous literatures are absent.
DESIGN & SETTING: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center between May and September 2017.
PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Three hundred males and females with mean age of 30.23 (±11.04) years were recruited in equal number for each gender (n = 150) and divided into 3 groups of 50 according to their BMI (n = 50). The three groups are non-obese (BMI≤22.9kg/m2); obese (BMI between 23 and 34.9 kg/m2); and morbidly obese (BMI >35kg/m2). BMI and Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) were obtained. The average of three readings of MPT was measured using a stopwatch while the participants phonate /a/, /i/ and /u/. Unpaired t-test and ANOVA were used to compare means between and across groups. Spearman correlation assessed the correlation between MPT and BMI.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The normative values of MPT of both genders and correlation with BMI were analyzed.
RESULTS: The MPT normative values for males and females in the non-obese group were of 21.41 (±6.85) seconds and 18.05 (±5.06)seconds respectively for /a/. The MPT for all vowels were significantly higher in males across the BMI groups (P ≤ 0.05). There was low negative correlation between MPT and BMI in both genders.
CONCLUSIONS: This pioneering study documented the normative values of MPT among Malaysians showed that males had longer MPT than females across the BMI groups. Obesity affects the MPT in that as BMI increases, the MPT decreases.