The occurrence of a retropharyngeal abscess in an infant has decreased due to antibiotic therapy. We recently surgically treated a case of a huge retropharyngeal abscess caused by an upper airway infection. The patient was a 4-year-old girl who complained of a high fever and left cervical swelling. CT scans revealed a low attenuation around the retropharyngeal space extending to the left deep cervical region. In this case, both a transoral and cervical incision was performed for drainage under general anesthesia. The patient was discharged without any complication. The management of such retropharyngeal abscess including the etiology and surgical approach are also discussed.

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Oncocytoma mainly occurs in the salivary glands and represents less than 1% of all tumors of the salivary glands. A microscopic study showed oncocytoma to have a large eosinophillic granular cytoplasm which was due to the hypertrophy of the mitochondria. We excised the parotid tumor and diagnosed it to be oncocytoma based on a pathological study. After a surgical excision, the prognosis is commonly good. However, both recurrences and malignant oncocytomas of the salivary gland have also been reported, and therefore a longterm observation is necessary.

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A case of extremely rare neurinoma of the lingual nerve is reported. The patient was a 54-year-old man whose chief complaint was a painless mass in the left mandibular region. The preoperative diagnosis was a left mandibular gland tumor and the patient was thus operated on. The operative findings revealed neurinoma of the lingual nerve, and both the left submandibular gland and the tumor were thus removed completely. The findings of a histopathological examination indicated Antoni A and B neurinoma.

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A patient presented with a thyroid grand cyst which was initially aspirated and thereafter 99.5% ethanol was instilled for 16 minutes as a sclerosing agent after the cyst had been thoroughly cleaned with saline solution. A CT scan at 1 year and 11 months after the ethanol instillation revealed no evidence of recurrence.
This is the first known application of ethanol for a thyroid gland cyst in the field of otolaryngology and our findings indicate it to be a safe non-surgical treatment.

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Using the immunohistochemical S-P method, we examined the expression of nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK), the product of the metastasis suppressor gene nm23, and its correlation with the degree of malignancy, and cervical lymph node metastasis in supraglottis laryngeal carcinoma of 80 patients. As a result 58.8% of the patients with primary laryngeal cancer showed a positive NDPK expression. In the patients without cervical lymph node metastasis, the positive staining rate (69.8%) was significantly higher (p <0.05) than that in those with cervical lymph node metastasis (45.8%). Our findings thus seemed to indicate that the nm23 gene plays a role in the inverse control of cervical lymph node metastasis in supraglottis laryngeal cancer.

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This is a preliminary study to examine the usefulness of a nasal provocation test with aspirin in the diagnosis of aspirin-induced asthma (AIA). The patients were provoked by various amounts of lysine acetylsalicylate (aspirin) in the nasal cavity. We were thereafter able to make a positive diagnosis based on the responses of the nasal symptoms (sneezing, rhinorrhea and nasal obstruction) within 10 minutes after the nasal provocation. Four out of 5 AIA patients were thus diagnosed to be positive. This test is easy to carry out, and may thnc become a useful diagnostic procedure for AIA.

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The bottom of the oral cavity was comparatively observed under a binocular microscope soon after the head and neck of a Bull-Frog Tritonchidae Domestic Fowl (hen) were removed as one mass from the living body and the results are summarized as follows: Part I: (The position of the larynx and tongue on the bottom of the oral cavity in the animals studied)
1. In all kinds of animals studied the bottom of the oral cavity was made up of the tongue and laryngeal or gill cartilage. They were also arranged in order according to the view on the bottom of the oral cavity.
2. No pharyngeal cavity or associated muscles were found in any of the animals studied in contrast to mammals.
3. It was thus naturally inferred that the pharyngeal cavity and its associated muscles appeared to have evolved with the larynx descending into the neck. Part II: (The function of the observed deglution regarding any pharyngeal muscles found to exist in the animals studied)
1. In all kinds of animals studied no pharyngeal cavity was found, however, a laryngpo-esophageal cavity was observed.
2. In all animals studied the duglution movement was found to be special. Part III: (Regarding laryngeal descent in mammals)
1. Laryngeal descent is considered to be an incidental phenomenon related to the evolutional process and eventually resulted in the development of perpendicular walking.
2. Laryngeal descent resulted in the development of the tongue and eventually led to the evolution of the pharyngeal cavity and its muscles.

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A multi-center, double-blind study was conducted to assess the efficacy, safety and usefulness of ONO-1078 (pranlukast hydrate) in the treatment of perennial allergic rhinitis, in comparison to epinastine hydrochloride. The subjects consisted of 349 patients who were divided into Group O (176 patients who were administered 450mg ONO-1078 per day) and Group E (173 patients who were administered 10mg epinastine HCl per day). The overall improvement rating was significantly higher in Group O (60.3%) than in Group E (34.2%). The percentage of patients who showed a reduction of nasal congestion was significantly higher in Group O (66.9% after 2 weeks and 71.8% after 4 weeks) than in Group E (49.7% and 58.0%, respectively). Thus, treatment with ONO-1078 resulted in a rapid reduction of nasal congestion in a high percentage of patients. When the nasal allergy diary was analyzed, three major symptoms (sneezing, nasal secretion and nasal congestion) were found to be significantly reduced in both Groups O and E, but no significant difference in each symptom was noted between Group O and Group E. The percentage of patients who were satisfied with treatment was significantly higher in Group O (40.4%) than in Group E (32.9%). The overall safety rating showed no difference between Group O (79.8%) and Group E (83.5%). The incidence of adverse experiences did not differ significantly between Group O (23.3%) and Group E (17.7%). As for the usefulness rating, the percentage of cases in which the drug was rated as useful was also significantly higher in Group O (54.1%) than Group E (31.8%).

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In 1995, when the cedar pollen level was unusually high in Japan, 65 cedar pollen allergy patients were divided into two groups using the envelope method. One group consisted of 27 subjects who received an oral H1 antagonist and topical steroid, while the other group consisted of 38 subjects who received Alegysal in addition to these drugs. The nasal symptoms, degree of interference with the activities of daily living, and rhinoscopic findings were determined before treatment and at 2 and 4 weeks after treatment. The efficacy leveled off 2 weeks after treatment in the control group, while in the Alegysal group, the symptoms and findings showed a tendency to further improve until 4 weeks after treatment. Interference with the activities of daily living was significantly less marked in the Alegysal group than in the control group 4 weeks after treatment.
The patients' subjective evaluation of the treatment's efficacy was “excellent” in 47% and “excellent” or “good” in 95%, respectively, in the Alegysal group, while the same evalutions were 26% and 78%, respectively, in the control group. The U-test showed significant differences between the two groups (p<0.05). Adverse reaction occurred in only 2 of 49 patients (4%), but no serious adverse reaction was obseved.
These findings indicate that co-administration of Alegysal with oral H1 antagonists and topical steroids is therefore an effective treatment for patients with severe Japanese cedar pollinosis.

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Compared to Hi receptor antagonists, chemical mediator release blockers (anti-allergic agents) are considered to be more effective in treating nasal obstruction in nasal allergy. However, they also require a longer time before showing a therapeutic effect.
Remicute (emedastine difumarate) has various pharmacological effects such as the inhibition of chemical mediator release from mast cells induced by antigen and substance P and the suppression of eosinophil infiltration in the nasal mucosa.
We evaluated the effects of Remicut (R) 12mg twice daily for 2 weeks on hyperreactive nasal symptoms in 74 subjects with perennial nasal allergy and then compared the number of days required to demonstrate a subjective improvement in sneezing, rhinorrhea and nasal obstruction.
More than a moderate improvement rate for sneezing, rhinorrhea and nasal obstruction was seen in 61.0 %, 65.1%, and 59.0%, respectively, with 74.5% demonstrating a more than moderate final global improvement rate.
The number of days required before a subjective improvement of sneezing, rhinorrhea and nasal obstruction could be seen was 3.6±0.4 days, 4.7±0.7 days and 6.5±0.9 days, respectively, with 5.9±0.7 days for global improvement.
These results thus suggest that Remicut (R) is as effective for nasal obstruction as it is for sneezing and rhinorrhea and the number of days required for a subjective improvement of nasal obstruction is 2-3 days longer than that for sneezing and rhinorrhea.

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