To report on the safety and efficacy of cartilage-buttressed T-tube tympanoplasty for long-term middle ear ventilation, specifically by examining duration of tube survival, as well as adverse events associated with prolonged middle ear intubation, including persistent tympanic membrane perforation.

Chondrosarcomas of the skull base are malignant tumors for which surgery is the primary therapeutic option. Gross-total resection has been demonstrated to improve survival in patients with these tumors. Chondrosarcomas arising from the petroclival synchondrosis harbor particularly unique anatomical considerations that have long been a barrier to achieving such a resection. Endoscopic endonasal transpterygoid approaches have been recently used to gain improved access to such lesions; however, these approaches have classically relied on a medial to lateral transclival trajectory, which provides limited exposure for complete resection of lateral disease. In this paper the authors describe an endoscopic endonasal transpterygoid transnasopharyngeal approach that provides comprehensive access to the petroclival region through dissection of the eustachian tube with resection of the cartilaginous torus tubarius. Of note, the authors have previously demonstrated the superior outcomes and validity of this approach relative to other cranial base techniques for petroclival chondrosarcomas. Surgical outcomes in 5 cases of chondrosarcoma without medial extension are detailed. Gross-total resection was achieved in 4 of 5 patients. Postoperative complications included transient palatal numbness in all patients and eustachian tube dysfunction due to the approach. With tympanostomy tube placement, no patient had persistent hearing loss. Overall, this approach appears to be a safe and effective technique for resection of petroclival chondrosarcomas.

Approximately 130,000 adenoidectomies are performed each year in the United States. Few studies have examined adenoid regrowth and the incidence of revision surgery or have compared four different surgical instruments commonly used for adenoid surgery within the same institution. This study aimed to determine the incidence of revision adenoidectomy after the use of microdebrider, Coblation, suction cautery, and curette instruments over a 10-year period at a single major tertiary children's center in the United States. A retrospective chart review was performed for all patients who underwent primary and/or revision adenoidectomy at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) between August 2004 and August 2014. During the 10-year study period, a microdebrider was used in 212 cases, Coblation in 382, suction cautery in 1,926, and curette in 3,139 adenoidectomies. The percentages of revision adenoidectomy were 1.42% (3 patients) for microdebrider, 0.79% (3 patients) for Coblation, 0.36% (7 patients) for suction cautery, and 0.03% (1 patient) for curette. The cumulative incidence of revision adenoidectomy for initial surgeries performed at CHLA was 0.2% for the 10-year study period. Pearson chi-square analysis showed statistically significant differences between the surgical techniques (p < 0.0001). In conclusion, regrowth of adenoid tissue requiring revision surgery occurs very infrequently irrespective of the instrument used for the primary procedure, and the most common indication for revision adenoidectomy is to improve eustachian tube dysfunction rather than nasal obstruction due to adenoid hypertrophy.