[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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Chronic epipharyngitis may be overlooked if the evaluation is not thorough, as it presents with indefinite symptoms such as postnasal drip, foreign body sensation in the throat, chronic cough, headache, dizziness, and shoulder stiffness. Epipharyngeal abrasive therapy （EAT）, which involves abrasion of the epipharyngeal mucosa with zinc chloride solution, may be effective in treating chronic epipharyngitis. In this study, EAT was performed with 1％ zinc chloride solution on 92 patients with chronic epipharyngitis, who also underwent epipharyngeal irrigation with saline solution. The severity of the patients’ nasopharyngeal endoscopic findings and their subjective symptoms were assessed before and after the treatment using questionnaires and the Numerical Rating Scale （NRS）, and the effects of the treatment on the local findings and subjective symptoms were investigated. To assess the severity of local findings, redness and swelling of the epipharyngeal mucosa were scored on a 4-grade scale, and points were added when postnasal drip and crusting were observed. The subjective symptoms were statistically analyzed using a questionnaire （4-grade） for each symptom （e.g. postnasal drip, foreign body sensation in the throat, and pharyngeal pain）, including the chief complaint and NRS score （10 points） for the general condition before and after the treatment. The improvement rates were 72.8％ for the local findings, 88.0% for the chief complaint, and 79.3％ for the NRS, showing a significant correlation between improvement in the local findings and chief complaint. These results suggest the effectiveness of EAT for chronic epipharyngitis.

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[in Japanese]

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There are several methods involving day surgery or short surgery for treating patients with snoring and sleep apnea. In these cases, sufficient postoperative care is needed, especially for laser assisted uvulopalatoplasty （LAUP） in the outpatient clinic. A case of severe postoperative pharyngeal bleeding after LAUP is presented. A 35-year-old severely obese man complaining of sleep apnea had been started on nasal continuous positive air pressure at a family doctor’s clinic. However, he wanted to try another therapy for sleep apnea, and so LAUP with local anesthesia was performed at another outpatient clinic. He returned to his home after a short period of observation. However, he became aware of pharyngeal bleeding, which continued throughout the night. He searched for an emergency clinic and visited our hospital with insufficient medical information. He was admitted for follow-up after the bleeding point was identified, and bleeding was stopped with proper treatment. Three days later, he was discharged from our hospital without bleeding or any other problems. The selection of treatment for snoring and sleep apnea requires a thorough evaluation of subjective and objective information. In particular, when day surgery including LAUP is considered, adequate crisis management needs to be available.

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