Recurrent acute otitis media(rAOM) in young children are on the rise globally. In otitis-prone children, the effectiveness of repeated antibiotic therapy for each new infection and prophylactic antibiotic therapy to prevent AOM relapse is quite limited, and repeated antibiotic use leads to antibiotic-resistant pathogen development. Juzen-taiho-to (JTT) is known as an herbal medicine that improves immune function. We evaluated whether JTT has a beneficial effect in children with rAOM between January 2012 and December 2022. Fourteen rAOM children took JTT for 12 weeks. The mean number of AOM episodes before JTT treatments was 1.31 times per month. The mean number of AOM episodes in each month (1M; 0–4 w, 2M; 5–8 w, 3M; 9–12 w) during JTT treatments was 0.33, 0.17, and 0.08 respectively. The frequency of AOM decreased gradually while taking JTT orally, and significantly decreased (Wilcoxon signed rank test, p=0.002) when JTT was administered for 12 weeks. JTT appears to effectively prevent rAOM in children. JTT is thought to be one of the first-choice treatments for rAOM in children, and avoiding the overuse of antibiotics would prevent the increase of drug-resistant bacteria.

Unilateral hearing loss in children used to be diagnosed for the first time in many cases during medical examinations, but newborn hearing screening (NHS) has made it possible to diagnose hearing loss at an early stage. NHS also contributes to the diagnosis of congenital hearing loss.

In this study, 41 children with unilateral hearing loss were surveyed regarding age at first visit, reason for hearing loss, degree and cause of hearing loss, and the involvement of NHS in diagnose. Three-quarters of all the children were first diagnosed within 3 months of birth, and most of them were diagnosed by NHS. 83% of all the children were diagnosed by NHS.

Congenital malformations of the inner, middle or external ear were the cause of hearing loss in 73% of all, and 85% of all cases were congenital hearing loss. This 12% of this difference was thought to be due to the ability of the NHS to diagnose congenital hearing loss. Cochlear canal stenosis was the most common congenital malformation. More than half of the children have unilateral severe hearing loss, and it was thought that confirmation of congenital cytomegalovirus infection (CCMVI) and precise examination of inner ear malformations would be useful in searching for the cause of unilateral sever hearing loss.

The Japan Otological Society (JOS) staging system for middle ear cholesteatoma is a classification system that was created to select surgical methods for cholesteatoma and for correlating with postoperative outcomes. However, reports on pediatric acquired cholesteatoma are scarce. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between the degree of progression and postoperative outcomes based on the 2015 JOS staging system for middle ear cholesteatoma in 21 ears from 21 cases of pediatric acquired cholesteatoma that underwent surgical treatment at our hospital.

In the basic classification, no significant correlation was observed between the degree of progression and recurrence rate or postoperative hearing results. On the other hand, all cases in which recurrence was observed in the MC classification, which is one of the subclassifications, were cases of MC2 or higher without mastoid cell pneumatization. The recurrence rate was significantly higher in cases with a high degree of mastoid cell development. In addition, in the S classification, postoperative hearing results were significantly worse in cases with severe damages to stapes. The JOS staging system for middle ear cholesteatoma could better reflect clinical conditions by using not only basic classifications but also subclassifications. It was also considered useful for evaluating postoperative outcomes in pediatric acquired cholesteatoma.

While there are numerous reports of ectopic teeth, none describe this condition in neonates.

We report herein a female neonate in whom an ectopic tooth on the soft palate was removed at the age of 1 month, enabling nasal breathing and oral intake.

The patient began snoring and showing signs of airway constriction and other breathing problems soon after birth, which led to the discovery of a mass lesion on the soft palate by laryngoscopy. Although follow-up is normally acceptable in the absence of symptoms, the patient had respiratory and feeding difficulties which, in view of her age, necessitated early excision of the mass. After the mass was excised under general anesthesia, the patient’s symptoms improved promptly. Postoperatively, there was no recurrence of the mass.

There were hitherto no reports of ectopic teeth causing airway stenosis, and the diagnosis of the present case was not easy to make preoperatively. Otolaryngologists should include ectopic teeth in the differential diagnosis of pharyngeal tumor and be prepared to provide appropriate therapeutic intervention.