Chiari I malformation usually presents with headache, numbness, weakness and gait abnormalities. We present a 38-year-old female with trigeminal neuralgia who was found to have a Chiari I malformation. She had a foramen magnum decompression with complete resolution of her symptoms.

This is the first study from this highly prevalent region of HNCA showing that serum LDH could be regarded as a biomarker for malignant and premalignant conditions of the head and neck.

Frontoethmoidal encephalomeningocoele is a rare congenital disease in which an intracranial mass protrudes through a midline defect from the anterior cranial fossa into the facial skeleton. The condition affects patients in South East Asian countries, such as Thailand, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia, with frequency of 1 in 5000. The pathogenesis of encephalocoeles may be regarded as a 'late' neurulation defect during the fourth gestational week. We present a case of frontoethmoidal encephalomeningocoele with corpus callosal agenesis and colpocephaly; this may well be the first report of this combination. The patient had a bulging mass in the middle frontonasal area, with broadening of the nasal bridge and hypertelorism. Computed tomography scans delineated the skull defect and associated brain anomalies. A one-stage, combined transfacial-transcranial approach, correctional procedure was performed. We present here a discussion of the findings, with special reference to the condition's pathogenesis, morphological classification and evolving surgical treatments. Early diagnosis and referral, involving multidisciplinary teamwork, are of paramount importance because of the distorting influence of the extruding mass on facial growth.

No abstract

Background Cisplatin is a frontline anticancer drug routinely used as part of concurrent chemoradiation administered at 3-weekly (100 mg/m2) dose. However, its role as fractionated weekly dose has achieved favorable outcome in patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck (LA-SCCHN) during induction chemotherapy (IC). We therefore sought to compare the toxicity outcomes of patients with LA-SCCHN treated with platinum-based IC at a single institution study using split-dose cisplatin chemotherapy. We compared the hematological and renal toxicity profile between the weekly cisplatin (30 mg/m2) (group A) versus 3-weekly (100 mg/m2) (group B) dosage schedule in this setting. Results The median age of the patients in groups A and B were 49.1 years and 48.27 years respectively with male:female ratio of 4:1. Most of the patients were of oropharyngeal cancers. Group A patients showed greater neutropenia (40.2%) than group B (20.6%). There was statistically significant fall in Hb% level in group A (13.9%) than in group B (11.9%). Renal profile showed greater rise in serum urea and serum creatinine (52.7%) in group B than in group A (52.29%) with statistically significant difference. Conclusions Since toxicities induced by high-dose cisplatin are irreversible and reduce quality of life in patients, the weekly regimen may be preferred owing to less renal toxicity, lesser hospitalization and more feasible in situations with high patient load and limited resources.